Wonderplants!
- Words by
- Sally Wilson
Berlin-based creative Sarah Illenberger is the Clark Kent of the art world. When objects come into her hands, they’re spontaneously transformed from mild mannered, every day items into superheroes. Take the ‘Wonderplants’ series, where Sarah collects recognisable foliage plants and morphs them into veritable super plants… revealing their true selves!
The Wonderplants series was created by Sarah on holiday in Portugal. She visited local botanic gardens to collect foliage and found ways – with colourful sticky tape and dots – to reveal a little more about the secret lives of familiar plants.
Sarah’s playful costuming brings the structural elegance and hidden personality of her plants front and centre. She takes the large, paddle-like leaves of the strelitzia, for instance, and gives them a thorough cubic treatment. Lit up from behind against a Pantone of backdrops, these botanical wonders are transformed and completely incapable of disguise.
Monstera leaves are covered with confetti, like returned heroes celebrated with a ticker tape parade. Individual agave leaves are tattooed with the exuberant pop art meanderings of absent snails.
Sarah’s works are at their core decorative and light-hearted, but also lovingly portray the pure wonder of plants. We feature a selection of these Wonderplants below!
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All images courtesy of Sarah Illenberger.
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- Author
- Sally Wilson is a writer, editor and photographer. She regularly contributes to The Planthunter.
