marian bantjes: floral arrangement, “Sorrow”

Earlier his summer graphic designer, Marian Bantjes was featured as a guest artist/designer at Chicago’s 2013 Pop-up Exhibition titled “Work at Play” at Block Thirty Seven. The exhibition ran June 1–30 in tandem with Chicago Design Week that began the week of 9 June.

One of Bantjes’s pieces, in the show, was this poignant table top flower installation titled, "Sorrow" that was made during an 8 hour period on 10 June 2013. This photograph was taken on 12 June at 2:30 p.m.

Bantjes work always seems thoughtful and personal. This unique flower installation suggests a kind of traditional floral “mass arrangement” that is orchestrated with many flower pedals/leaves in several striking colors.

Perhaps there’s also the suggestion of “Dutch Style” floral arranging with the naturalistic garden style tropical materials and perennials with groupings of similar flowers and implied grid lines. It’s interesting that the total effect seems like a hand-tied bouquet.


The hand-signed label for “Sorrow”


This is one of Bantjes’s Valentines, which was in the show. It seems to have a Dutch Baroque style, and is correlated stylistically to “Sorrow”.