Fine Art and Dandelions

Art and Dandelions: Wunderkammer.

Art laboratory ArToll Bedburg 2011

Artist: Regine Ramseier

Dandelions are my favorite flowers. I don't care if everyone else
wants to call them weeds: to me they're flowers. I used to love to blow
on them and watch them gently float away on the breeze. Yes, dandelions
and butterflies were my "thing" as a child (and still are). When I
happened across this work of art, I was immediately enthralled by the
dandelions, although a little puzzled as to why they were hanging from
the ceiling. Then I realized they probably wouldn't do well as a carpet,
so perhaps that was the reason.





What blew me away was how real they looked. I mean, look at the
subtleties of whites and yellows, the slight differences in shapes and
sizes, the imperfect stems. Amazing!

How, I wondered, did this artist create these beautiful dandelions?

Thread? Cotton? Wool? Resin? Magic? Then the realization came to me: the artist did not create these dandelions.

They're REAL.

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The Challenge

Now, if you've ever picked up a nice, full dandelion like the one above,
you know that those little white fluffy things (they're actually seeds
with fine hairs attached that act like little parachutes) fall off, blow
off in the slightest breeze, and are often half bare before you even
get a chance to blow them.⁵





I mean, there's very, very little art that includes real dandelions, and their fragility is probably a key reason.⁶





So how on earth did artist Regine Ramseier manage to pick, transport,
hang, and artistically arrange 2,000 dandelions yet leave them almost
entirely intact?⁷

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The Process

First Regine found a beautiful field of fully mature, fluffy white dandelions.





Just like this one.





One source stated that she "picked" the dandelions.²



Hmm. Remember picking dandelions? The stems are bendy and sticky, so
it's easy to lose some of the feathery florets just pulling them.



I think she had to have clipped them to get stems that long and even
and keep the florets intact. Notice how carefully she's holding them so
that each flower head (aka "clock") is at a significant distance from
the others. One brush against anything, and that dandelion is caput.





Now she's spraying the dandelions with a gentle adhesive. I wonder if
that's to secure them in the carrier or if it helps keep the florets
from blowing away. Probably both, don't you think?





She's already rigged up the back of her car with what looks like twine, and she's secured each dandelion to it with green wire.





This clever tray enables each flower to be placed at a safe distance
from the others, have a stable base, and the amount of shaking and
shifting with transport could be controlled.





See the red? The stems were placed into clipped straws to keep the flowers even more stable.





No wonder it's called the Wonder Room. Regine appears to be a Wonder
Woman; she can do anything! Regine designed and built this palette
system to hold the trays of dandelions in a stable fashion for
transport. Genius. I mean, think about it… If you hadn't seen any of
this, would you have known how to pick and transport 2,000 dandelions
fully intact? Tough order!





I didn't see this photo until midway through this article, and I was
very surprised to see how forlorn and shabby the little room and window
appear to be. They're not going to look like that for long!





Regine is installing little pins at even intervals in order to secure
the ends of the clear wire from which the dandelions will hang.





Look at how whole, pretty, and intact these are! She started the
hanging process by the window. I'm pretty sure that I know the reason
for that; I'll explain in a bit.





A bit further along now. See how the dandelions closer to the window
seem to be hanging lower? There's a reason for that, too. Jiminy, it
looks like some have nearly managed to go through the window. It's
almost as if the panes are glassless now.





Hanging 2,000 dandelions. By hand. One at a time. With precision. I
wonder how that compares to painting a ceiling? Maybe the beauty of the
dandelions makes the process less exhausting.





A handmade version of these beautiful flowers installed like this in a
child's or teen's room would be magical. Fairy-tale-like. Joyful.

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The Reward

Just like that, it's done. A hanging field of beauty and splendour.

See how full and intact they still are? Amazing.

Have you noticed that the dandelions are not level?

No, in fact the dandelions hang gradually lower as they get closer to the window.



I hadn't really noticed anything beyond that they seemed to be at a
slant. It didn't occur to me why. I think that's probably one of the
reasons I grew up thinking that fine art was boring, stuffy, gray or
brown old stuff hung on a wall or behind glass in an antiseptic
environment. I didn't understand it, and I didn't have the experience,
eye, or acumen for analyzing it. Once I understood what was going on
here, my impression of this installation went from "wow, that's really
pretty, I love dandelions, how nice, really cool to put them on the
ceiling, love the pretty window, yada, yada, yada" to "WOW! The
symbolism. The beauty of such a wondrous idea, a philosophical
perspective brought to life in such a beautiful, tangible way."

Dandelion Wonder Room

You see, the artist strategically sloped the dandelions downward toward the window
and arranged those lower flowers that you see in order to create the
effect of the dandelions floating towards the light of the window,
outward and onward as if drifting through the room towards the window
and outward upon a gentle breeze. They remain only in memory as a moment
captured in time, much like the act of blowing a dandelion, of kissing
someone goodbye, of hearing beautiful live music…

Regine intended for this installation to
 represent life, birth, and impermanence, and she has given us that in
an incredibly beautiful, thoughtful, and extraordinary way.

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More Dandelions!

Click here to see some beautiful and interesting dandelions in other art forms.

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The Poetry of Life and Rebirth

The following is what Regine wrote about this masterpiece. It is in
German, with a rough English translation immediately following it.

Titel: Windstille

Ich habe diese Arbeit auf den kleinen Raum im Kunstlabor
ausgerichtet. Rund 2000 verblühte Löwen- zahnblumen pendeln leicht und
lebendig von der Decke. Ein Symbol für Tod und Wiedergeburt. Ein
Symbol für die Vergänglichkeit. Einen Augenblick innehalten. Den Atem
anhalten und sich dem Vergänglichen einen Atemzug lang zuwenden.
Staunen in der Wunderkammer. Hermann Hesse hat meine Empfindung in Worte
ausgedrückt. Im Gedicht Augenblicksblinken. Der kleine weisse Raum
enthält ein grosses Fenster, welches das Grün der Parkanlage
aussperrt. Der Pusteblumenhimmel neigt sich von der Türe hin zum
Fenster und es scheint, als würden die Blumen aus dem Raum
hinausgetragen, dem Licht und dem Tag entgegen. Doch still hängen sie
im Raum und sind von Dauer. Festgehalten in meiner Erinnerung. Sie
werden nicht zurückkehren. Doch die goldenen Wiesen, dies weiss ich,
die Pusteblumen, sie werden wiederkehren im nächsten Frühling. -Regine
Ramseier³

 English Translation:

Title: Calm (Still Wind)

I have focused this work on the little space in the art lab. About
2000 faded lion tooth flowers commute easily and alive from the ceiling.^4,1
A symbol of death and rebirth. A symbol of impermanence. Pause a
moment. Hold your breath and the Transitory turn a long breath.
Amazement in the Wunderkammer. Hermann Hesse my feelings expressed in
words. In the poem instantaneous flash. The small white room includes a
large window, which locks out the green of the park. The Dandelions sky
slopes from the door to the window and it seems as if the flowers
carried out of the room, towards the light and the day. But hush they
hang in space and are permanent. Arrested in my memory. They will not
return. But the golden Meadows, this I know, the dandelions, they will
return next spring. -Regine Ramseier

Here is the writing by Hermann Hesse that Regine makes reference to
above. Again, it is in German with the English translation following it.

AUGENBLICKSBLINKEN In den Sand geschrieben

Dass das Schöne und Berückende nur ein Hauch und Schauer sei, dass
das Köstliche, Entzückende, Holde ohne Dauer sei: Wolke, Blume,
Seifenblase, Feuerwerk und Kinderlachen, Frauenblick im Spiegelglase und
viel andere wunderbare Sachen, dass sie, kaum entdeckt, vergehen, nur
ein Duft und Windeswehen, ach, wir wissen es mit Trauer, und das
Dauerhafte, Starre ist uns nicht so innig teuer: Edelstein mit kühlem
Feuer, glänzendschwere Goldesbarre; selbst die Sterne, nicht zu zählen,
bleiben fern und fremd, sie gleichen uns Vergänglichen nicht, erreichen
nicht das Innerste der Seelen. Nein, es scheint das innigst Schöne,
Liebenswerte dem Verderben zugeneigt, stets nah am Sterben. Und das
Köstlichste; die Töne der Musik, die im Entstehen schon einteilen, schon
vergehen, sind nur Wehen, Strömen, Jagen und umweht von leiser Trauer,
denn auch nicht auf Herzschlags Dauer lassen sie sich halten, bannen;
Ton um Ton, kaum angeschlagen, schwindet schon und rinnt von dannen. So
ist unser Herz dem Flüchtigen, ist dem Fliessenden, dem Leben treu und
brüderlich ergeben, nicht dem Festen, Dauertüchtigen, Bald ermüdet uns
das Bleibende, Fels und Sternenwelt und Juwelen, uns in ewigen Wandel
treibende Wind- und Seifenblasenseelen, Zeitvermählte, Dauerlose, denen
Tau am Blatt der Rose, denen eines Vogels Werben, eines Wolkenspielers
sterben, Schneegeflimmer, Regenbogen, Falter, schon hinweg geflogen,
denen eines Lachens Läuten, das uns im Vorübergehen kaum gestreift, ein
Fest bedeuten oder wehtun kann. Wir lieben, was uns gleich ist, und
verstehn, was der Wind in Sand geschrieben. -Hermann Hesse³

English Translation:

EYE VIEW FLASH Written in the sand

That the beautiful and captivating just a touch and shower was, that
the Delicious, Delightful, Holde without duration is: Cloud, flower,
soap bubble, Fireworks and children's laughter, Woman looking in mirror
glass and thousands of other wonderful things, that they hardly
discovered, pass only one fragrance and Blowing of the Wind, Oh, we know
it with sadness, and the Durable, Rigid We are not so intimately
expensive: Gemstone with cool fire glossy heavy gold Barre; even the
stars, not counting remain distant and strange, they resemble We do not
reach the transitory not the secrets of your hearts. No, it seems
intimately Beautiful, Endearing spoiling inclined, always close to
dying. And the most precious; the sounds the music in the making already
divided, already pass away, only labor, streams, hunting and to be
surrounded by quiet grief, be found neither in heartbeat time let them
talk, banish; Sound by sound, hardly struck, vanishes already and runs
away. So our heart is the fugitive, is the flow ends, the life
faithfully and fraternally revealed not the parties, duration fittest,
Soon we tired the enduring, Rock star and world and jewels, driving us
in eternal change Wind and bubbles souls, Newlywed time, duration lots,
where dew on the leaf of the rose, where a bird Advertise, a Cloud
player die, Schneegeflimmer, rainbow, Butterfly, already flown away,
those of laughter ringing, the us in passing barely touched, represent a
solid may or hurt. We love which is equal to us, and understand, what
the wind is written in sand. -Hermann Hesse