Propaganda Flowers by artist Gluklya (Natalia Pershina-Yakimanskaya) is a series of drawings that are accompanied by personal stories and anecdotes on the connection between politics and flowers. For example, the Kimilsungia violet orchid was named after Kim Il-Sung, former leader of North Korea, and tells a narrative about the remembrances of socialism. The Vampire Tulip asks questions about human hypocrisy, distracted from the water crisis in Africa, whereas the Welwitschia flower is accompanied by an anecdote about the flower as a symbol for democracy. Each drawing touches upon the ethics of politics, combining the sweet symbolism of flowers with deeply geopolitical concerns.
For the upcoming exhibition at Nest in The Hague, Can you be a revolutionary and still like flowers?, a new chapter of the Propaganda Flowers series will be created. Gluklya is looking for people who would like to collaborate with her for new stories on plants and politics that will form the basis for the new drawings. She is particularly interested in a global-international approach and a focus on noncorrupted multiculturalism. It can be a story from any country and can be told in any way. Consider, for example, memories of a garden or stories about flowers with a symbolic meaning in the homeland.
( written by Eva Burgering after she study my seria of Propoganda Flowers )