We hereby invite you to the opening of the exhibition

Frederik Busch – German Business Plants

Thursday October 11th, 7PM
GUDBERG NERGER
Poolstraße 8, 20355 Hamburg

Frederik Busch will give an artist talk at 8pm and sign books as well as the limited collectors edition.
A selection of thirty framed prints from the German Business Plants  project will be up for display from October 11th to the 15th at Gudberg Nerger in Hamburg.

 

About German Business Plants

The daily work routine of post-industrial society reveals an inexhaustible supply of stories and images; whether as sitcoms, as critical editorials or as government office statistics, sources from which we should learn about the socio-political and economic conditions of today’s working people. Often it is about disclosures, about situations that can be humiliating or unfair, yet brushed off as “normal” in everyday life or even taboo - such as bullying, discrimination, exploitation or self-exploitation. Thus the point is about allowing people to open themselves for discussion, those who previously remained silent because their stories may have somewhat rocked the “smooth operations” and balance of power. But what we all too often forget is that humans are not the only entities in the functioning office. Cacti, dracaena trees and scheffleras populate medical practices and law firms, advertising and job agencies, in order to bring a little “life” between the stacks of files and the computer screens. That these are in fact living organisms is a reality all but ignored. Office plants often end up as mere things, their right to substenance - that little bit of water - is hardly taken seriously. Even less so the right to beauty when they are practically dried-out, shoved in a corner and are only able to reach necessary sunlight via contorted growth - this is in fact, not far from the alienation and interchangeability of the “overachieving” of people in their daily work routine. In his photo series “Business Plants” Frederik Busch shows us portraits of such plants in their operative states. Portraits which discover office-botany with proper names and brief characterizations, and in which we quickly realize that these plants are indeed “also only human beings”, their tragicomic existence interwoven in everyday questions about relationships, music and fitness. That their daily life is not designed all that paradisiacally, is unquestionable. The humoristic approach that Frederik Busch has chosen allows us however, to confront these plants as individuals, simply as fellow creatures and not just merely things that submit to the civilizational superiority of the human species.