Thursday, March 15, 2012

INSIDE: TOP DOOR

VEGETABLE, n.s. [vegtabilis, school Lat, vegetabile, Fr.]
Anything that has grown without sensations, as plants.

Other animated substances are called vegetables, which have within themselves the principle of another sort of life and growth, and of various productions of leaves, flowers and fruit, such as we see in plants, herbs, trees. Watts

Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)


The exterior of the Herbarium is devoted to fruit. The inside drawings feature vegetables behind the top door and flowers behind the bottom door.



VEGETABLES

To choose a black radish as the centerpiece for the visual statement representing vegetables is a bit on the strange side. One expects color, not the absence of it. I found it irresistible. This object came to me as a gift from Megan Parry who found a farmer at the Eastern Market in Detroit who specializes in radishes. His table is somewhat spare but what is there is pretty amazing - huge white and black radishes!

The title for this drawing is "Midnight Snack" and the concept is a place setting for a vegetarian. The radish sits on a plate designed by the Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein. The plate sits on a piece of black paper decorated with white wax dots. Beneath is a geometric patterned mola from Panama. Further table decorations include three black chess pieces, a tiger salamander, a
Heliconius butterfly, a Paplio cresphontes butterfly, a white crocus, feathers and a Buprestid beetle.

The rest of the food is scattered about: a slice of a purple potato, an assortment of peppers, asparagus, a tomatillo, gold pearl tomatoes, peas, greens, a round zucchini, rapini, beans, a red potato.....delicious.