silk flowers

Windy Hill, GA

Gillsville, GA

Marietta, GA

Did I tell you how I started this whole thing with silk flowers? Here is an excerpt from my thesis on mourning and my discovery of cemetery silk flowers.


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About Mourning

 . . . Repeated gesture of mourning started to take its own life as a ritualistic, if not religious, process in which I once again attempted to reconcile my own childhood. The following writings are a collection of a few of my few aesthetic experiences I have had which were deeply synchronized in my studio practice, especially regarding mourning rituals. These verbal cinemas capture the essence of my mental process and are as valuable as my experimental studio works over the past two years.

About Cemetery Flowers
One day, my colleague took me to one of the largest cemeteries in Georgia where an endless array of cemetery flowers was inserted into the green lawn so precisely. He wanted to show me his grandfather’s grave. My obsession with cemetery flowers started on that first day of visiting the cemetery. After getting permission from the cemetery office, I started my regular visits to the cemetery to collect loads of discarded cemetery flowers into my car. The distinctive colours and smell of the cemetery flowers started to fill up my studio. People started to identify me as the ‘flower girl.’ I started occupying the metallic sculpture studio with fabric cemetery flowers; I would sit for hours taking the flowers apart and re-arranging each item. Not only did the cemetery flowers perfectly symbolize the commemoration of loss and ephemeral beauty, but also they were malleable in my explorative installation, material studies, and performances. It made perfect sense to me.
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Thanks, Danny P.






- G.