Johannesburg – Plants are vital to human life and research has shown that they communicate with one another, respond to their environments and, most likely, interact with humans on the level of energetic transfer.
The significance of plants to human existence has inspired “Plant Babies”, an exhibition by acclaimed local artist Lauren Shantall which will be showcased at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town from next month.
The series of plant portraits in acrylics will run in the gallery space at The Yard Cape Town, located in the Silo District from February 9 to March 9.
The artistic exhibition is the brainchild of Shantall, who also runs the award-winning communications agency Scout PR & Social Media.
She also dabbles in public speaking which focuses on lifestyle trends, and she points out that social media abounds with botanical styling, pot plant hashtags, and masterclasses on how to style your house plants for the urban jungles of now.
From a macro perspective, Shantall says she is fascinated by this pervasive plant movement and what it says about our society.
“It makes me happy when I see the plant world taking pride of place in urban homes and spaces, and how the two seem to be moving closer together,” she says of the trend, which is linked to the rise of Organicism as a lifestyle philosophy.
“In this societal shift, we can read so many things: there’s reverence for nature, heightened awareness of greening and green issues, the place for plant therapy as an antidote to digital disconnection, and the need to express care and nurture growth and positivity.”
The artist’s paintings embrace all this, “from observing the trend to participating in it myself, and depicting my own and my husband’s family of plant babies at home, which, almost like our son, need a lot of care and attention to thrive”.
Shantall explained that she has treated her plant subjects the way a conventional portrait painter might engage with a human posing for a likeness.
“There’s gentle poking fun at this long-held convention, one that predated the advent of camera photography as a form of functional representation, and then became enshrined as an art form,” she said.
“But I am engaging with the notion of portraiture in a serious way too: my plants are my sitters, and I do try and capture something of the feeling or essence of the plant, and more especially, how I feel when I look at it, in order to create a painted #plantie.”
Shantall added that the paintings vary in the way they depict their leafy subjects.
“Some are semi-realistic, others are more abstract, yet all are linked by highly expressive use of colour. In these paintings, colour is a device that denotes joy, and marks that imperceptible surge of love that occurs when the subtle connections between living things – between plant person and human person, between parent and plant baby, between growing person and plant teacher – are recognised and honoured.”
At the same time as “Plant Babies”, Shantall also has work on display at the RK Contemporary gallery in Riebeek Kasteel as part of the salon-style summer group show “Lush”, which will run until February 27.
Her work has also been included in group shows at RK Contemporary, Vacant Museum (global online), Jaffer Modern in Cape Town and Galeria Azur in Madrid, Spain.
Shantall was also a finalist in The Brick Lane Gallery London Open Call competition in September 2020.
“Plant Babies” will open to the public at 6pm on February 9. There will be an artist’s walkabout combined with a plant display and talk on plant care by Flourish Plant Studio from 11am to 12pm on February 11, which are all free to attend.