This project was inspired by a quote from the author Nina Edwards, taken from her book 'Weeds' in which she explores the relationship between our society and weeds, and how it is always changing over time. The quote being:
"The weed is a category of plant that is traditionally associated with what is poorly designed."
This negative stigma we have against weeds always confused me growing up and I never quite understood it, especially coming from a family of botanists who supposedly love plants, but only those that don't fall under the 'weed' umbrella.
I wanted to fight this idea that weeds are associated with 'bad' design by including them in a piece of good design.
Inspired by the work of a floral designer I really admire, Mark Colle, who creates magnificent floral arrangements (most notably probably his work on the Dior Haute Couture Autumn/Winter 2012 fashion show), I decided to work using an arrangement of a mixture of various native Irish weeds, that would work as a frame that would showcase another quote by Nina Edwards (that would be stuck down using vinyl) in which she states her argument that:
"For a plant to be alien, it has to have been introduced by human activity, either intentionally or unintentionally, and so one might argue that weeds are our fault; yet we blame the weeds."
My hope with this project was that I could prove that weeds can be a sign of good design, as long as we work with them, instead of trying to wipe them out from existence.
