Leafing Through Flowers

Rating:
Summary: Bridging the gap between floral decoration and art/sculpture
Review: In this exquisitely photographed volume of cutting edge (forgive the pun) floral decorator and Dutch flower shop owner Daniel Ost's innovative floral and leaf/branch/twig sculptures, this artist in greens, browns and multi-colored flora attempts to bring us into a totally new realm of plants and flowers as art and architecture. The narrative is written in three languages (depending on the edition, mine was in German, French and English). The photography demands that the reader extend his or her senses to try to understand how articles formerly animate could possibly be intertwined into seemingly brand new, even shockingly nouveau, inanimate statements of artistic freedom: some soaring sculptures of fine vines wrapped around deep purple stems and white.yellow lilies; other basketlike formations of plant material interwoven with flowers so small that one has to imagine the fine tiny winds gently rustling this very Japanese, Zen-like water lily (looks alive but isn't).

Daniel Ost is one of the European plant/flower artists, designers and photographers who have made such an impact on art-as-live material. You have to see these photos and carefully read the challanging narration to understand why you will never again be able to look at plants or flowers the same way you do now. Ultimately, Daniel Ost is telling us that although flowers and plants used for decoration must be cut from (separated from) life; the beauty and the architectural integrity of these materials in the hands of a contemporary master can work a miracle of design and function which results in forms that transcend everything we know about traditional floral arranging.