A publication inspired by a residency project at Ganna Walska Lotusland, envisioned and supported by Yasmine Mohseni and Sam Zodeh, this forthcoming publication presents the fruits of these endeavors, published by X Artists’ Books in Los Angeles.
“In LA-LIKE: Escaped Exotics (2015-2017), Zoe Crosher casts the sex organs of Lotusland’s exotic flowers. Opened to the public in 1933, the botanical garden originally belonged to “Madame Ganna Walska, a well-known Polish opera singer and socialite … whereby Madame (as she is known) spent the next forty-three years creating her ‘collection’ of exotic plants.”14 Crosher explores the garden as a site of collection, with particular archival practices that attend to constant, organic fluctuations. Plants are not static objects but live at a nexus of environmental and genetic factors. Inspired by photographic documentation, Crosher casts “the reproductive elements of exotic plants … that blossom prior to the end of their life cycle, preserving the ephemeral—and in some case rare and endangered—plant matter into bronze sculptures.” She uses a “lost wax” process, whereby the original plant material is destroyed. Though the resulting sculptures boast a more stable existence, they are void of potency, enduring instead as gilded and heavy afterimages of a flower’s fertility.”
- Caroline Picard, Imperceptibly and Slowly Opening, forthcoming from Green Lantern Press, September 2016
Courtesy of Lotusland, Yasmine Mohseni and Sam Zodeh
ALL IMAGES COPYRIGHT ZOE CROSHER 2024
CONTACT: Z@ZOECROSHER.COM
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