Geraniums, Carnations and Chrysanthemums.

In my country, Spain, we take flowers to the cemetery to say goodbye to the people we love.

I would like not to have to experience a loss, but apparently that’s part of the game. 

In my installation I play my own game, that is why I have prolonged the life of these flowers artificially by transforming them into a new material that remain longer than a cut flower.

 

The installation explores loss, decay, change and transformation over time, through the bodies and symbolism of flowers. Among the flowers used in the work, geraniums, carnations and chrysanthemums have a special meaning for me: in Spain, my country of origin, the chrysanthemum is known as the flower of the dead, the carnation is the flower of celebrations while geraniums are the flowers I grew up with, in my grandmother’s garden. As they wilt I transform them into long strings of a new material. New transparencies, textures and colors are revealed in the installation.

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I was never good at goodbyes...

 

Sara Mayoral Jiménez