Blooming into Human: Faux Flora

Faux Flora is an all-encompassing, multisensory exhibit at the National Nordic Museum. Fischersund, the creator, is an Icelandic artist collective that creates using sound, scent, light, and visual art. Faux Flora incorporates these elements to tell the story of human life through made-up plants. The viewer is transported to a place where bouquets grow from cereal boxes and glass tears clink together as they hang from the downturned face of a flower. The exhibition covers four stages of life: birth, childhood, adolescence, and death. These stages are represented through the plant life cycle. It is a story that is foreign in its presentation yet all too familiar. There are many words I could use to describe Faux Flora, yet none quite feel adequate. The exhibit felt like an essay, with masterful prose and a vise grip on tonal shifts. 

The exhibit starts eerie and dark. Neutral-toned goo drips from the petals of an alien-like plant species as it sways with a breeze you can almost feel. Birth, represented by germination, is the beginning of the cycle, shown by only two animated flowers. The flowers are mostly shades of light pink and beige. As the smallest section, I found this stage the least memorable part of the exhibition. However, the darkness and overall biological ‘goopiness’ of the section captured the silence and essence of that stage of life in a way that felt a little uncomfortable. 

Then, Faux Flora moves into growth, or childhood (in human terms). Childhood/growth is a transition between the dark, monochrome of germination and the exuberance of adolescence/flowering. The space gets brighter, and the colors become more vibrant and playful. The sickly sweetness of cotton candy wafts from a brightly colored animated flower that seems like it might give someone a cavity if they get too close. A series of hand-colored gelatin silver prints line the wall, picturing flowers growing from pharmaceutical products, sodas, and candy boxes. All of these products evoke a sort of quiet nostalgia, bringing back memories of products like ginger ale and cough syrup that defined my own childhood. Growth also houses one of my favorite fake flowers at the exhibition: a bloom entirely made of band-aid petals. I love the contrast between candy and pharmaceutical products. It communicates the duality of joys and growing pains that come with finding your way in an unfamiliar world. 

The next section, Flowering, is one of the brightest sections of the exhibit and offers the most sensory stimulus. At times, it was overwhelming. Situated in the middle of the room, you can see and hear sounds from either side of the exhibit in this section. The digital flowers and other aspects like prints are a wash of pinks and reds. On one side of the room, two flowers with mouths kiss and then separate on a loop, leaving a string of liquid between them. I don’t want to describe the sounds playing from that particular flower, but I think you can probably guess. The overflowing of colors, sounds, and scents washes over the viewer, threatening at times to sweep them away. Flowering is intense and beautiful and overwhelming in a way that feels true to the experience of being an adolescent. 

Next up is the section that I enjoyed the least: seed dispersal/adulthood. The lights are bright, but the colors are much duller, the scents more intense. Seed dispersal’s main imagery and themes revolve around birth and a certain reproductive activity that I am not sure I am allowed to name. Many images are of seed pods, and there are several empty plastic bags in the middle of the section. I’m not sure how I feel about the implications presented in seed dispersal. It seems to argue that, past adolescence, life gets duller, more grounded, and becomes centered around having kids (and that previously unnamed reproductive activity). 

Death is the darkest phase of the exhibit by far. It only has one flower, and all its color fades to shades of dark brown. On the far wall, there is a video clip of animated grass, taken from the side profile of the ground. The carpet of grass flutters in a looped animation, allowing viewers to see the dark void beneath. It felt somber yet peaceful. The final scent of the exhibition was gentle yet musky and sweet. The browns and beiges of the section merged the two parallel storylines of plant and human life. It showed us that both humans and plants, like all other inhabitants of this planet, return to the ground at the end of life.

All in all, Fischersund’s Faux Flora is nostalgic, uncomfortable, sad, and hopeful. The exhibit integrates sound, color, light, scent, and technology seamlessly into the story of life. Faux Flora is layered and best enjoyed through taking one’s time to experience everything. The more time I spent in this exhibit, the more I uncovered. After going through the exhibit once, I had to spend at least 25 more minutes just taking notes. Every single facet of the experience is curated and well thought out. Even with so much going on, every detail is intentional and goes towards the central story of the exhibit. The exhibit is truly like a story or essay, carefully guiding visitors through the plant and human life cycles. Faux Flora’s attention to detail, complexity, and ability to connect with viewers through pathos makes for a worthwhile trip to the National Nordic Museum.

Lead photo: Jim Bennett/Photo Bakery for National Nordic Museum

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