In the late 19th century, German biologist and naturalist Ernst Haeckel created over 100 detailed drawings of animals and sea creatures, later published in a book of lithographic and halftone prints as Art Forms in Nature. Half a world away, and over century later, Brooklyn-based artist Sui Park has for the last several years been making three-dimensional Haeckel-esque structures that blend the organic and artificial worlds.
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Park’s latest solo exhibition, Garden of Humans, continues represents organic forms with mass-produced industrial materials, particularly cable ties. The show will feature 100 new drawings and a new installation titled Flow, as well as introduce some larger installations like Wiggling and Presence.
“Our mother nature is wondrous and mystical,” Park tells The Creators Project. “The more you know, there seems to be another abysmal depth behind it, an irony. This becomes apparent to me when I attempt to visualize nature's esthetics. In Garden of Humans I attempt to visualize nature that is seemingly static yet dynamic and evolving.”
“Creating organic forms with industrial materials to express characteristics of nature may suggest irony,” she adds. “However, I believe this is a great way of introducing wondrous beauty and the seemingly static but dynamic feature of our mother nature. Rather than irony, I believe it introduces an illusionary effect and mystical ambience that resembles our remarkable nature.”
Blue Print (gallery image)
The process that Park uses to create the organic-like forms involves a traditional weaving technique. Just as nature consists of cells, Park considers her materials to be modules—the building blocks of her artwork.“The materials are hand-weaved via a system of repeated patterns developed into an organic form,” Park explains. “My materials are less [typical than] what is used in traditional basketry. Most of my work use monofilament and cable ties, which are plastic lines.”
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Blue Print (original documentation image)
“While they are artificial, I find them to be quite effective in delineating dynamic or mystic features of organic forms or space,” she adds.
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