Flowers, 2005, is a solo exhibition featuring recent photographic works by James Welling, as part of its ongoing program of exhibiting classical and contemporary artworks investigating botanics and horticulture. It will include selections from a recent body of work: Flowers. For this work, Welling makes the perception of color his concept, and Plumbago blossoms his subject. Throughout his investigations into the nature of color, Welling continues to utilize the photogram or photogenic drawing (camera-less photograph) as his medium. This process produces astonishingly luminous images. Nearly abstract, they are ethereal impressions of plant life giving form to the phenomena of color.

The result of this process is extremely beautiful, engaging, transformative imagery that is visually entrancing and compellingly intelligent. In addition to the photographs on view at The Horticultural Society of New York, there will also be a display that illustrates the physical process of making this work. Welling describes the process as follows:

First I take Plumbago blooms, about 6-8 stalks to work with in a session, and in the dark, I take a sheet of 8×10 inch film out, put it under the enlarger, place a few flowers on the film and expose to light. Then I process the black and white negative and let it dry. I do about 6-8 at a go. I then contact print the negatives to see what they look like, and I cull the best ones and print them 37×46 inches using a color mural enlarger on Kodak Endura Metallic paper. In the first Flowers I made exposures using a filtration I knew would give me certain colors…red, green, orange, purple, indigo, yellow, blue. In the next group, 2005 Flowers, I used 2-3 filter combinations, shading parts of the paper and making second exposures with other filter sets…

In doing this, Welling destabilizes the idea of a color photograph and recontexualizes the photographic image. By neutralizing the time and space of the picture, by stripping it of its photographic historicity, what is registered on the paper is more present than ever – the image is unique. Conceptually, this way of making photographs crosses over into the world of horticulture. A Plumbego blossom, commonly called Leadwort, was once thought of as a cure for lead poisoning. Historically, humanity has looked to the nature of plants to solve its existential dilemmas. Plants, like photographs, are entrenched in a primarily objective, specific exchange accommodating the various needs of our culture. By scientifically proving that a plant is of no use to humans, it exists, as a unique being, its modalities determined only by its perception. Welling’s luminous, conceptually driven photographs, displayed in the context of horticulture, are a visually compelling artistic statement and a reflection of the current underpinnings of the way contemporary artists are investigating their ideas through horticultural subjects.

Curated by Jodie Vicenta Jacobson