The art of artificial flowers: Marita Pappa speaks to the “National Herald” about their symbolism after the pandemic
February 22, 2025
By Yianna Katsageorgis
https://www.ekirikas.com/i-techni-ton-techniton-louloudion-i-mari/
In a world that has changed radically since the pandemic, the concept of nature and art have reconnected with the past in another dimension. For Marita Pappa, artificial flowers are not simply copies of life, but symbols of safety, endurance and the fragile balance between the natural and the artificial. In the interview she gave to the “Periodiko” of “EK,” she talks about how the post-pandemic era influenced her artistic path, the emotional and philosophical significance of artificial flowers, and the way in which art continues to redefine beauty, memory, and permanence in a constantly changing world.
Marita Pappa’s ephemeral flowers create Spring, to escape the sadness and grief for human decay, for the end that everyone fears, but is inseparable from our nature. We saw her work in the exhibition she held at The Opening Gallery in Manhattan, entitled “The Poignancy of a Perpetual Spring,” which triggered, in addition to feelings of joy and revitalization, intense reflection on their ephemeral nature, which motivates us to love beauty and enjoy the present.
Flowers, as a universal language of connection, whether real or fake, exert an incredible attraction on us, because they symbolize emotions, memories and moments that transcend time. Their beauty, even in their artificial form, reminds us of the fragility but also the timelessness of the human need for aesthetics, expression and communication.
Where were you born and what were the raw facts about your family that shaped your personality?
I was born in Athens in 1988, in a house full of books. Politics, literature, mythology, history, poetry — my parents’ library was like a small bookstore. From a very young age, I read every book I could get my hands on, even if it wasn’t for my age. My parents never limited me in what I would read, and I thank them for that. From Dostoevsky to Tsiforos and Kazantzakis, as well as everything by Alki Zei and George Sarris. When I was 14, I read “Smile, Hey… What Do They Want?” and “Well, You Killed Too Early” by Chronis Missios — I still remember how moved I was by his writing. I think that this reading experience played a decisive role in the way my work was shaped, as well as in my engagement with the public sphere and its politicization. Besides books, in my house there was always food — my mom is an excellent cook — and music: Beatles, Hadjidakis, Alexiou, Savvopoulos. That was how my life was shaped until I was about 17.
When did your interest in art begin and what prompted you to pursue it?
To be completely honest, I don’t have a clear answer to that. Sometimes even I wonder myself. I was never one of those kids who had a notebook and drew or sketched. I never had a diary, I didn’t write lyrics or poems, nor did I sing. But I dreamed, on a permanent basis, I knew in my heart, since my teenage years, that in my life I would do something related to art.
Maybe it was through the books I was reading that I became fascinated with the idea of art, who knows? On the other hand, of course, I danced for many years. I started ballet when I was four years old and, around thirteen, I continued with contemporary until sixteen, when my involvement with dance also stopped due to school obligations. This experience marked me, because I really wanted to do it professionally, but I never found the courage to do so. In 2006, I moved to Thessaloniki to study. Somewhere there, my interest in cinema and photography also began. Dancing turned into walking and observation — and that’s how my involvement with art began.
You are mainly known for your installations, in which you have references to politics, sculpture, texts, sounds and images. What is their impact and what do the public gain from these installations?
I will try to answer this question in an exploratory way. The more I create and educate myself in what we call the “art world”, the more I am convinced that the artist’s control over the interpretation of the work is limited. In fact, in my opinion, control stops the moment the work is introduced into the public space. From the moment the creation leaves the narrow limits of personal narrative, then, in some unique and strange way, art begins — unless the work has a strictly personal, didactic or propagandistic character. To give an example but: when I presented “The Poignancy of a Perpetual Spring”, my most recent work, the next day I happened to talk to two very good friends of mine in Athens. In the context of the exhibition, we discussed the phenomenon of the spread of artificial flowers in the city. So, perhaps the answer to this question lies somewhere there. I hope that, through my works, the viewer will question themselves rather than rest. I hope that they will see poetry, awaken and be activated.
Mrs. Pappa, you are one of only two Fulbright scholars from Greece. You have had excellent studies, you are a multi-award winner and thanks to Fulbright, you came to New York to give another dimension to your art. Tell us, were your work with the technical flower compositions that you exhibited at The Opening Gallery inspired by this city and how?
This work is directly influenced by New York. When I applied to Fulbright, one of the main research axes of my proposal, as well as its methodology, was pedestrian art — that is, how one could use walking as a tool, performance, or means of exploring public space. When I arrived in August, the first thing I noticed around me was the abundance of flowers adorning restaurants and their outdoor spaces — something unusual, given the extremely high temperatures in the city at that time. My research proposal is related to the study of New York City’s public space in the post-pandemic era. These colorful artificial decorations became especially popular during the pandemic, when restaurant owners used them to decorate their outdoor spaces and attract customers in order to financially save their businesses. The peculiarity of these compositions is that they are a form of mapping of the city. To be more precise, the compositions I found in the West Village — a fairly expensive area of the city — are not aesthetically comparable to a composition in a fast food restaurant on the Lower East Side. So I found it interesting how these compositions acquire a class character and decided to start my research on the public space of the city in this way.
The title of the solo exhibition you presented at The Opening Gallery in Manhattan is entitled “The Poignancy of a Perpetual Spring”. How does your work resonates with the title?
The English title of the exhibition is |The Poignancy of a Perpetual Spring”. The use of the word poignancy is crucial, as it has a double meaning in both languages. It could be translated as “melancholy”, but at the same time it could mean something apt, intense or sharp. The title is directly related to the presentation of this exhibition. When working on this project, I aimed to create a dual interpretation of these flowers — through the melancholic-nostalgic Polaroids and the sharpness of the handmade fabric flowers. The exhibition was divided into two parts. In the first space, there were three mixed media compositions of artificial flowers. These compositions referred to classic paintings, straddling the line between kitsch and collage. There, I focused on the transformation of the material and the manual labor required to create them. The second space consists of a sculptural installation: 24 wooden boxes made of MDF, the same material that restaurants use for their outdoor structures. Each box “houses” inside a Polaroid depicting a composition of artificial flowers. Thus, the exhibition itself was a conceptual exploration of the relationship between real and artificial, melancholic and intense.
You have given a different interpretation to artificial flowers. You have investigated a topic that few anthropologists and sociologists have considered, although these flowers have been symbols of “bypassing nature”, since they never wither. As for natural flowers, let us not forget the 1960s and early 1970s when they were a symbol of passive resistance and the ideology of non-violence.
This is precisely the contradiction that piqued my interest: how something so completely connected to non-violence, the beauty and tranquility of nature invades so aggressively and permanently in public space. Even from an aesthetic point of view, these compositions change over time — whether due to weather conditions or due to pollution and exhaust fumes. My artistic research and practice focuses on power structures in the public sphere and the way they shape collective memory. In this case, artificial compositions were used as a means of survival and aesthetics, with restaurant owners looking for “creative” ways to hide their cheap constructions. However, these installations, which began as practical adaptations for outdoor dining, have evolved are unintentional monuments that reveal how institutions respond to crises through temporary solutions, which eventually become permanent elements of the urban landscape.
Let’s come to your own creations with the beautiful daisies, the impressive magnolias and so many other highly aesthetic flower arrangements. What materials do you use and how difficult is it to create such a special work?
My installations always have an ephemeral character. I use cheap materials and there is almost always an element of manual labor and repetition. The relationship between materiality, memory and transience is something that has occupied me a lot in my research in recent years. I was looking for how to approach, or to put it better, how to create a dialogue between the permanence of Polaroids and the artificial nature of flowers. So I decided to make my own fabric constructions. I contacted a fabric flower workshop and asked them if they had materials for “throwing away”. In today’s world, I think it is important to think about the impact of the materials and methods we use. I felt it was necessary, from the moment I produce something new, to find the most correct and ecological way. Thus began the composition of these structures, which took about a week, composing over two hundred flowers that, at any moment, can decompose and return to their original state. This concept of the transformation of the material and the multiple dimensions it could take fascinates me.
In the artificial nature of the flowers in your work, I think there is a sense of melancholy and at the same time there is a sense of familiarity. How do you interpret this?
The familiarity initially comes subconsciously. I grew up in a house that had artificial flowers of excellent quality. I still remember the dark red velvet roses on our living room table. Maybe that’s why they caught my attention. People who visited the exhibition commented on exactly that: how something so trivial and so familiar, within the context of such a study, is given another character. Through this exhibition I tried to examine these flowers as a mnemonic aid, to give them an “aesthetic value” through the constructions, which at the same time constitute a critique of the ways in which our collective life is being shaped after the pandemic. I think this may also bring about a feeling of melancholy.
The demand for fake flowers increased after the pandemic. Where do you attribute this shift?
Margaret Mead’s commentary on her article The Flowering of Fake Flowers, published in the New York Times in 1964, argues that the proliferation of artificial flowers in the private and public spaces of postwar America reflects an attempt to avoid nature and a search for permanence. In my opinion, it is very apt. The sight of these artificial compositions offers a sense of security and control. You don’t have to try, because they will be there forever. There will be no decay. Perhaps the post-pandemic world will look for more and more ways to ensure this feeling.
What is this element to which you attribute your success most? Maybe it is a little early to talk about success, of course, it also depends on how one defines it. Nevertheless, I will say that for the first time in my career as an artist I feel that I have a body of work that can and does communicate through many methodologies, beyond the exhibition part. There is an acceptance, understanding and communication, whether it has to do with writing research proposals or with educational workshops. Research and pedagogy are areas that have greatly influenced my practice and I consider them inextricably linked. The Fulbright recognition came at a time that was very important for me, and I am grateful to them. Through this award, I have been given the opportunity to come into contact with a huge artistic and scientific community. I strongly believe in interdisciplinary collaboration and study. If there is a concept of success in my work, I believe it is due to this.
Tell us about your collaboration with the curator of your exhibition at The Opening Gallery, Ms. Sozita Goudouna, who showcases international and local artists with great success.
Sozita is an excellent collaborator, whose support in the implementation and presentation of the project was decisive, and I thank her very much for that. Her trust in my work is a great honor and I would love to have the opportunity to work with her again in the future. When we decided to present this work, almost instinctively we both worked with the dual role of the work as a guiding principle. As an artist, I approach the exhibition space as as part of the project. Ms. Goudouna’s scientific training as an art historian and curator helped me a lot in finding the way in which we will use the space of the Opening Gallery in the Tribeca area. The passion and zeal that Sozita can show to get a good result is admirable. Honestly, the moments we spent together in those days when we were setting up the exhibition are among the most creative, funny and productive that I have experienced preparing an exhibition. I can’t wait to see her next creative plans, which I am sure will be unique as always.
You have also lived in England and have traveled a lot. What impressed you in the neighborhoods of the World and would you like to implement it in a project?
I have a deep love and curiosity for what we call everyday life and how it is defined, framed and politicized. If I could go back in time or maybe at some point in the future, I would make a piece about Athens. I have been away for many years and now I feel the need to get to know it better. It sounds almost utopian, but what I would like to do is make a sculptural installation in the ancient agora of Athens. It is a place that I visit almost every time I go. It is a place that is directly connected to the concepts of the public sphere, political participation and democracy and I would love to have the opportunity to make an on-site installation there.
studio:www.maritapappa.com
instagram @marita_pappa
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About the artist
Marita Pappa is a Greek visual artist who explores the relationship between body, time and public space, as well as the conditions of rupture and survival. Through installations and urban interventions, she interweaves concepts of poetry, politics and place, using sculpture, text, sound and photography.
She holds a BFA from the Glasgow School of Art and a MA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art, London. Her work has been shown in the UK, Greece, Italy, Germany, Turkey and Norway, at venues such as Opening Gallery (New York), Gallery 46 (London), Standpoint Gallery (London), Iris Gallery (Athens) and House For An Art Lover (Glasgow), as well as at the Athens Photo Festival, Medphoto Festival, Brighton Photo Biennial and Bitume Photo Festival (Puglia, Italy). During her studies, she received support from the NEON Organization, the Schilizzi Foundation in Memory of Eleftherios and Eleni Venizelos and the Leverhulme Trust. From 2022 to 2024, she coordinated F.E.I.N.A.R.T., the first EU-funded network supported by Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions for the development and production of socially engaged art in Europe. In 2024, she received a Fulbright Artist Grant and is hosted at the New School in New York as an artist-researcher.
About the Gallery https://www.theopeninggallery.com
The Opening Gallery, at 42 Walker in Tribeca, New York, is a nonprofit cultural venue and initiative established in 2022, showcasing global and local artists, practice-based research, as well as performance, live events, and educational programs. Exhibited artists belong to US and International museum permanent collections. Exhibitions include visual and performing arts and music events, with monthly public programs spanning a wide range of topics. The Opening Gallery has presented international and US based artists including Andres Serrano, ORLAN, Sagarika Sundaram, Michele Zalopany, Kenneth Goldsmith, John Zorn, The Shoplifter, Luciano Chessa, Daniel Firman, Hans Weigand, Raúl Cordero, Jessica Mitrani, United Nations artist-observer Yann Toma, Warren Neidich, Coleman Collins, Constance DeJong, Charles Gaines, Jimmie Durham, Leslie Hewitt, Jimmy Raskin, Agnieszka Kurant, Olu Oguibe, Martha Rosler, Allen Ruppersberg, Chrysanne Stathacos, Leah Singer, Ronan Day-Lewis, Orit Ben Shitrit, and Bill Hayward. In spring 2024 the gallery program will present a selection of Watermill Center former artists-in-residence including Eileen O’ Kane Kornreich, Christopher Knowles with Sylvia Netzer, D. Graham Burnett and “The Order of the Third Bird,” and Brian Block.
The Gallery has partnered with prominent US institutions like Columbia University, Maison Française NYU, Fulbright, Watermill Center among others and has hosted the New York Arab Festival and events organized by MoMA curators and collaborates with Sorbonne Art Gallery in Paris. The nonprofit cultural venue and initiative supports an heteroclite art ecosystem that attempts to go beyond prevalent gallery models in Tribeca. Proceeds support neurodiversity, charitable causes, and the non-profit Luv Michael, which is committed to enriching the lives of autistic adults. The Opening was founded by Sozita Goudouna, PhD and in 2023 partnered with the London-based publisher Eris to present exhibitions related to publications by Kenneth Goldsmith, Andres Serrano, ORLAN, Lucas Samaras, and Maurice Saatchi among other acclaimed contributors and artists. Our publishing art program has hosted readings of Edward Said’s poems by Simon Critchley, Stathis Gourgouris, and Udi Aloni, as well as readings of Gabriele Tinti by Vincent Piazza.
