There is this old
Joni Mitchell song, says Stephanie Torbert, that goes, They
took all the trees, put them in a tree museum, and charged all the people a dollar
and a half just to see em. That lyric runs through a lot of my work
in some sense. Its about how we change the world in strange ways, how we
perceive the alienation we feel, and a kind of playfulness along with the alienation.
This photograph and its title suggest that combination of alienation and playfulness.
The lighting that gives the blossom its inner glow and the strange landscape in
the background makes this banana plant look as though it is flowering on Mars.
The word wand is in the title because Torbert wanted to add an element
of magic to the flower, and the suggestion of its ability to transform itself
and its surroundings. I worked for many years as a naturalist in
a wildflower garden, explains Torbert, and although these pictures
dont relate to that work I became aware of the environment and what we are
doing to it. Attraction to the beauty of nature and fear for the endangered
environment comes together in Torberts flower series. A lot of my
work is about that, she says, walking that edge between two worlds.
The chorus to that old Joni Mitchell song? Dont it always seem to
go that you dont know what you got till its gone? They paved
paradise, put up a parking lot. (Joni Michell, Big Yellow Taxi, 1974) |