Shivering, huddled by the heater, wrapped in scarves and afghans. Renting movies, checking the windchill factor, ordering out, cursing and whining, buying Chapstick. These are the popular methods of fighting extreme cold. Another possible antidote: stop by your local florist and rush home with some fresh-cut tulips, roses, or irises, shipped from a more humane climate, full of color, warmth, the promise of light at the end of the tunnel of winter.
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Randy Alexander, who believes strongly in this antidote, is curating “The Flower Show” at the Betsy Rosenfield Gallery, 212 W. Superior (renamed the “Betsy Rosenfield Greenhouse” for the occasion). Alexander has gathered work by some 40 contemporary artists in a wide variety of media, all of whom, in one way or another, exploit the flower and its connotations. At first glance, this wild English garden of a show promises a warm breath of beauty–decorative, placid, and predictable–but upon further investigation, the floral motif begins to stretch its mundane definition, expanding our understanding of the possible meanings in petals, stamens, pistils, leaves, and stems.
There’s an element of cruelty in cut flowers, so pretty in the crystal vase, but which have been cropped in their prime, made impotent for the buyer’s enjoyment. Chicago photographer Caroline Ausman seems to comment on this notion: an androgynous punk, with earring and eye makeup, smiles glibly against a background of fabric patterned with decorative flowers. Mark Jackson paints disembodied heads, floating in terror, surrounded by beautiful garlands of flowers. In Stephen Lack’s Judgement of the Roses a threatening bloodred rose dwarfs a dead man. In this image of the flower, its thorns show.
Randy Alexander’s “The Flower Show” is a lively floral arrangement, full of life, sex, history, and death–more than enough to generate some heat. And it will continue through February 13, with an opening reception Friday, January 15, from 5 to 7 PM. For more information call the Betsy Rosenfield Gallery at 787-8020.
