No. 06 from the series DIGITAL IKEBANAS by Anita Cruz-Eberhard

Anita Cruz-Eberhard creates fictitious photographs of Ikebana floral arrangements. The arrangements exist only as digital files or prints and are comprised of images taken from the online databases of university biology departments. Cruz-Eberhard explains that the images "have been repurposed to investigate the relationship between artifice and nature."

Visually, the images relate to Martin Kilmas' Flowers; and he's also playing with ideas of nature — in particular, gravity — and artifice, the somewhat false ability to see things that we wouldn't otherwise, via photography ala Muybridge.

I think the work actually might be closer to that of 2008 First Edition Hot Shot, Colleen Plumb. Plumb began her series, Animals are Outside Today, looking at "fake nature." You can see this work on 20x200; you'll also see that as she's worked her initial intentions have broadened to examine not only simulation but also "consumption, destruction, and reconstruction as well as notions of endurance and the reality of loss." When considering these other ideas, Cruz-Eberhard's images get interesting, she's certainly deconstructing and reconstructing, and creating something that could, technically, live forever, without actually existing in "real" life.

***Quick reminder: if you want to see your work here, on 20x200, or maybe even in a group show at Jen Bekman Gallery, you have five weeks left to get your entry together and apply!