Installation view at Haus der Photographie / Deichtorhallen Hamburg, 2013 (gute aussichten_junge deutsche fotografie 2012/2013)
Büropflanze
Büropflanze (office plant / 2012) is a study of German office flora. It meditates on workspaces and inherently questions the forms and values of daily work life. The bits and pieces of nature, almost unconsciously brought to the workplace, seem to reveal a lot about the basic needs of human beings when placed into an inorganic, standardized environment, where everything present is assigned under the premises of functionality.
Even when provided by the company as a decorative element, the office plant is something that is allowed to unopposedly thrive and blossom: A tiny bit of anarchy amid the rigid clockwork, something amorphous among the geometric forms, a spark of life within the mechanisms of control. In contrast to holiday postcards, family photographs, or other attempts to personalize the impersonal office architecture, plants are prone to change and grow – sometimes utterly unnoticed, and sometimes under close observation and loving care – up the ceiling, around the heater, and encroaching through the blinds. Plants can only be controlled to a certain extent, yet they are utterly dependent; they must be watered and cared for to survive in an arid and artificial habitat. From the mail room to the chief executive’s office, you will always find the same robust species of plants transferred from subtropical regions, adapted to life at room temperatures, dry periods, and floodings. The close relationship between humans and plants can last for many years – sometimes for the duration of an entire career.
On numerous expeditions into the offices of Germany, Saskia Groneberg photographed office plants within their “natural” habitat. She collected leaves for an office plant herbarium, archiving leaves with the help of a scanner, and cultivated the cuttings afterward. Accompanying texts composed by employees offer a glimpse into the plant owner’s psyche. The results of this research are cumulated in an oversized artist book reminiscent of historical botany books. A second artist book with the photographs was published by Edition Taube in 2017.
Büropflanze
Archival Pigment Prints, Edition of 5+2
50 × 70 cm, 2012
Installation of office plant cuttings,
plants, table, glasses, lamps, 2012
Büropflanze Artist Book,
Hardcover, digital offset, 42 × 29,5 × 4 cm, 390 pages, 3.7 kg
Edition of 5+3, 2012
Büropflanze (office plant),
Artist Publication, Hardcover, 76 pages, offset (duotone)
29 × 21 cm, 2017, Edition Taube / ISBN 978-3-945900-08-6
Archival Pigment Prints, Edition of 5+2
50 × 70 cm, 2012
Installation of office plant cuttings,
plants, table, glasses, lamps, 2012
Büropflanze Artist Book,
Hardcover, digital offset, 42 × 29,5 × 4 cm, 390 pages, 3.7 kg
Edition of 5+3, 2012
Büropflanze (office plant),
Artist Publication, Hardcover, 76 pages, offset (duotone)
29 × 21 cm, 2017, Edition Taube / ISBN 978-3-945900-08-6
Installation views: Haus der Photographie, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, 2013
Artist book, 42 × 29,5 × 4 cm, 390 pages, 3.7 kg, hardcover, linen (Ed. of 5)
Artist book, 42 × 29,5 × 4 cm, 390 pages, 3.7 kg, hardcover, linen (Ed. of 5)
