| The title of this exhibition, “Palisadenparenchym,” is German for palisade mesophyll, a biological term that describes the cellular layer directly under the surface, or cuticle, of a plant leaf. Each of these cells is cylindrical in shape and, when combined and seen in a cross-section, interestingly resembles a palisade or fence-like structure. With the highest per-cell concentration of chloroplasts, these cells form the main site for photosynthesis. The palisadenparenchym is therefore a profoundly energetic environment, a power station in which sunlight is transformed into glucose, using carbon dioxide and water, with oxygen as a waste product. It is also the most important biochemical pathway known and the process on which nearly all life on earth depends. |  |
Palisadenparenchym-Daniel Schmidt, Curator, Danese Gallery
The title of this exhibition, “Palisadenparenchym,” is German for palisade mesophyll, a biological term that describes the cellular layer directly under the surface, or cuticle, of a plant leaf. Each of these cells is cylindrical in shape and, when combined and seen in a cross-section, interestingly resembles a palisade or fence-like structure. With the highest per-cell concentration of chloroplasts, these cells form the main site for photosynthesis. The palisadenparenchym is therefore a profoundly energetic environment, a power station in which sunlight is transformed into glucose, using carbon dioxide and water, with oxygen as a waste product. It is also the most important biochemical pathway known and the process on which nearly all life on earth depends.
The exhibition, “Palisadenparenchym,” at the Danese Gallery in New York City presents work by 20 emerging or established artists who explore elements from nature in abstract, metaphoric or literal terms. The exhibit therefore contemplates nature’s effect on our actions and thinking, as well as the effect of our actions and thoughts on nature.
Environmental protection and climate changes are continually becoming more and more focused upon nationally—even President Bush is clearly running scared on the issue of climate change—and this significant public demand in the US and globally for urgent action has presented a desperate attempt to begin international negotiations on the next stage of emissions reductions. It’s about time, one would say, considering the fact that climate change has been predicted and proven for years by numerous scientists and environmental protection organizations. The Kyoto Protocol, which President Bush rejected in 2001, was meant as a first step to fend off projections of ever-increasing heat waves, hurricanes, floods and rising seas linked to rising emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly from burning fossil fuels. That humans are causing climate change is a reality and not something we have to fear in the far distant future. Yet, it seems people need to have the real threat right on their doorsteps before they will fully confront the issue and begin to change habits.
The artists included in “Palisadenparenchym” investigate the role of nature in our lives, whether decorative, therapeutic or recreational, further perceiving it as a vulnerable system needing protection or as a destructive force with which not to be reckoned. These artists demonstrate a keen interest in organic life, and are often influenced by childhood experiences, fairy tales, history and the myths and mysticism inspired by the natural world.
Viewers perceive marked similarities to the Romanticism of the late 18th and 19th centuries during the European Industrial Revolution. The movement exalted the individual’s imagination, dreams, intuitions and emotions as critical authorities and, in doing so, permitted freedom from classical notions of form in art—a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature in art. This new respect for nature—the awe inspired by confronting the sublimity of the untamed natural world, the call for a philosophy based on nature, which included human activity conditioned by nature—makes up the motifs apparent in the work of the artists featured in “Palisadenparenchym.” The elements present here—art and narrative from the Medieval period, ancient myths and a fascination with supernatural and occult subjects and criticisms of the past on both formal and political issues—undoubtedly establish this exhibition as at one with its distinctly Romantic roots.
The exhibition includes an installation by Scoli Acosta, who contributes Imaginary Forest, a work constructed of air freshener trees illuminated by an artificial sun created out of used tickets from the Paris metro. Peter Coffin’s houseplant installation entitled Shared Refraction/Reflection examines the artist’s own exploration of the phenomenon in which a plant’s growth can be documented by playing music next to it. While listening to a woman’s voice reciting different colors, the installation becomes Coffin’s own experiment. In fact, the artist even compiled a double CD called Music for Plants, available for purchase at the gallery. Other sculptures and installations are exhibited by Christian Holstad, Chris Lipomi and Stefan Thater, as well as a painting by Matthias Meyer, and works on paper by Lutz Braun, Sven Dankmahr, Jeff Davis, Delia R. Gonzalez, Andreas Hirsch, Nico Ihlein, John Kleckner, Marcus Knupp, Isa Melsheimer, Marcel Odenbach, Katia Santibañez, Stephanie Snider, Christian Weihrauch and Su-en Wong.
