If Only Flowers Could Talk by Clarisse Pillard

In her project “If Only Flowers Could Talk”, French artist Clarisse Pillard talks about the “behind the scenes” of offering flowers to someone, confronting us with images of their mass production and the logistics behind it. In collaboration with Adèle Pavia, the artist also published a photo book on the topic, “I heard that without pain, there ain’t no gain”, that shows photos of those flowers that have not survived these systems of production and consumption. See pictures of the two projects and learn more about Clarisse in today’s “All Eyes On”.

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“If Only Flowers Could Talk”

by Clarisse Pillard

Offering cut flowers might manifest joy, sincerity, and various feelings. It might mark a form of attention or a request for attention. Sometimes, flowers seem to replace those words that are impossible to formulate. And offering flowers — these ephemeral objects — appears more as a social performance. In an installation that plays with words and images, I question their commodification and pick them as an example to highlight the systems of dependency that are inherent to our exchanges, and the systemic loops — that drive, push but also constrain us — in which we are caught. In this room, you won’t see (or almost no) flowers because this project isn’t about flowers as such or about their aesthetic power, but about everything around them before they arrive on your dining table, whether it means logistics and mass production. 

I heard that without pain, there ain’t no gain

by Clarisse Pillard and Adèle Paiva

The photo book “I heard that without pain, there ain’t no gain” was realized in collaboration with Adèle Pavia. It draws the limits of the commodification of cut flowers by collecting photos of those flowers that have not survived these systems of production and consumption – in other words, those flowers that have been sacrificed by the scale of the means deployed.

About the artist