Sunbirds & Tropical Flowers 1.0

Most tropical flowers are uniquely beautiful with vibrant colours and long tubular calyx full of sugary nectar. However, they are also extremely vulnerable. Sunbirds feed on all the insects that visit these plants, and this helps in protecting the fragile flowers from being eaten or damaged by parasites. In return, the flowers have customized and adjusted their shape and size for the beaks of local sunbirds, to be exclusively available for them: mutualistic symbiosis.

THE WORLD NEEDS MORE FLOWERS AND BIRDS

The Art of Living Together

The Art of Living Together is my ongoing series translating the natural phenomenon of symbiosis* within evolution. My inspiration was ignited when traveling in Angola and South Africa, where I started researching the fascinating intermingling between different species in their development. The interaction amidst these seemingly opposite forces is emphasized through the correlation of the geometric and the organic, the abstract and the detailed, the digital and the tactile, the East and the West, the North and the South, and the old and the new. When the fragile reciprocity is precisely balanced, these dissimilar worlds smoothly collide, merge and enforce each other.

*Symbiosis is a long-term biological association between two organisms of different species. The organisms, called symbionts, can be either in a mutualistic, a commensalistic, or a parasitic relationship; interactions which can be beneficial, neutral or harmful for either one or both species.

From digital to tactile

I digitally transformed Sunbirds & Tropical Flowers 1.0 into 3D reliefs and textile structures by implementing ancestral tufting techniques. The tapestry is handmade by artisans in India with the utmost care. New Zealand Wool of the highest quality is used to create the durable and soft results, and yarns are coloured with natural chemical-free ingredients.

specs

furniture design Sjoerd Geerts product-photos Uppix exhibition photo Ilco Kemmere @ Object

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