Blooming Beyond Sight

The work shows the blooming periods of endangered plant species in Western Australia and includes memorials for 9 extinct species and sounds transformed from endangered plants’ DNA. It spans both the physical and virtual worlds:

In the physical world, ribbons crafted to mimic the leaf shapes and flower colours of Western Australia’s endangered plants (each of them hand made by the artist), flutter in the wind, intertwined among tree branches. These ribbons are made from translucent, eco-friendly materials that reflect tree shadows. The ribbons are white with colourful, glow-in-the-dark paint marking their blooming period using 12 discrete equal partitioning. Collaborating with computer scientists, Xiaoyu Yang transforms plant DNA into audible sounds and mixes them with soundscapes of habitats of endangered plants. In the virtual world, visitors are invited to use AR scanning, through Artivive a downloadable app from either the App Store or Google Play. By combining extinct plants that only exist in the virtual world with those that are endangered but still present in the real world, the work highlights the plight of endangered plants and makes the overlooked consequences of climate change more visible.