WEEDS

ON: June 6, 2016 BY: Editor 17 COMMENTS Uncategorized

Botanical portrait of unwanted plants

In the summer of 2015-16 we collected and dry a vast variety of weeds from the sub-urban Copenhagen.

Screen Shot 2016-06-10 at 06.33.50

“Weeds may be ubiquitous, but hunting down the quantity and variety for this artwork in urban and sub-urban Copenhagen was no easy feat … it required “thinking” like one of them. Weeds are ingenious shape-shifters; outlaws of the concrete jungle. They thrive off human activity – in newly disturbed landscapes and on nutrient-poor substrates. Yet in our manicured city centers these tenacious characters are far from welcome. Weeds are popularly seen as unwanted, valueless and troublesome plants, and the war against them is a strong one. So it was in the exploration of neglected spaces, wastelands and the wilder fringes of the city that they were found. Voracious nettles springing up in the unkept corner of Solbjerg KirkegĂ„rd, bloodred poppies blooming beside an abandoned factory, beach-rose clinging to the water’s edge under SjĂŠllandsbroen. One summer’s morning a colony of giant burdock growing along the train-track between Enghave and Sydhavn was hacked down by an army of men in fluorescent jackets. It seemed the municipality triumphed … but the weeds will come again next year; the weeds always win.”

Pio Diaz Weeds. Mixed weeds packed and frame from urban-sub urban Copenhagen. Dimentions H 190cm W 145cm

Pio Diaz words on Weeds:

I have always been attracted to weeds. I remember collecting them at a very early age at my grandfather’s farm in GualeguaychĂș walking through ParanĂĄ delta. The place is wild heaven. Poison plants, poison frogs, alligators, huge boas capable of swallowing a cow, snakes, tomcats are just a few of the dangerous inhabitants in the ParanĂĄ Delta. I remember walking with my young cousins trough the uncertain forest, the oldest who was about 11, was carrying a rifle for protection. Nature still is certainly a hostile environment to man and man made constructions in the Delta.

Weeds and their wild uncontained clash of nature-culture reveals that forced fragility of manmade ruled landscape. We constantly sophisticate the laws in which we inhabit our personal and social spaces. We are in essence nature but coexist in the laws of culture. We scape nature with culture but nature is always right there after us in a fitness race for evolution. We mirror in nature but behave in culture. The more we understand culture the better rewarded our social cognitive skills are, So we do not only fight nature but we fight the nature in ourselves.

17 thoughts on “WEEDS”

  1. Pingback: northmodern Copenhagen Vol. 4 - Industry Publicity
  2. Sofie Helsted says:
    September 5, 2016 at 7:09 am

    Absolutely amazing work. Could you send me more information, like prices, size ……
    and where to look and buy – if it is possible.
    Thanks Sofie

    1. Editor says:
      September 5, 2016 at 3:29 pm

      Thanks Sofie. We only deliver in Denmark. I can send you a pdf and information if you give us your email…. Kindly Pio

      1. Sofie Helstef says:
        September 5, 2016 at 7:54 pm

        Thank you. My e-mail is
        sofie@flyhelsted.dk

      2. Sofie Helsted says:
        September 7, 2016 at 10:12 am

        Hi Pio

        My mail is sofie@flyhelsted.dk
        Thanks Sofie

  3. Elly Leanne Rottler says:
    September 15, 2016 at 12:59 am

    This is brilliant. I happen to be struggling right now with a new home, my desire for nature “art” and finding it difficult to balance what “speaks to me” vs. what might “look good” (ostensibly for other people) in the home. I was struck the minute I saw this – for many reasons. Please, info? I am in the States but could find a way to manage something … It just needs some thinking. LR.

    1. Editor says:
      September 19, 2016 at 9:24 am

      Dear LR, Thank you for your kind comment. We will send you the catalogue via email shortly. Please feel welcome to write us with any questions you might have to: m@hildendiaz.dk
      Best regards,

      Hilden Diaz

    2. Editor says:
      October 6, 2016 at 11:43 am

      Dear Elly thanks for your message. send Us an email to m@hildendiaz.dk and we love to send you the pdf catalogue.

    3. Editor says:
      December 19, 2016 at 9:05 am

      Sorry for the later reply. PLease write us an email to m@hildendiaz.dk

  4. JILL.HERRINGTON says:
    September 21, 2016 at 8:22 am

    I will be visiting Copenhagen next month. Are these part of an exhibition as I would like to view them?

  5. Heidi says:
    November 24, 2016 at 11:49 pm

    Hei!
    Er disse for salg?
    Skal til KĂžbenhavn neste helg. Har dere katalog med priser Ă„ sende meg?

    Vennlig hilsen
    Heidi Mikkelsen

    1. Editor says:
      August 9, 2017 at 9:51 am

      Hi Heidi.
      yes you can purchaise directkly at Martin AsbĂŠk Gallery, Bredgade 23, 1260 KĂžbenhavn K

  6. Pingback: WEEDS | navhir
  7. epe says:
    January 28, 2017 at 8:11 pm

    I love this art and love to see a piece of WEEDS in my house. I understand that THE art comes in one kind of demension, 1.90 by 1.45? Is it possible to send me a catalogue?

    Thank you and love you’re work!

    Greetings from the Netherlands

    1. Editor says:
      April 5, 2017 at 8:37 am

      Dear Epe, thanks for your kind message and sorry for late reply. please email us directly to our contact adress m @ hildendiaz . dk

    2. Editor says:
      August 9, 2017 at 9:43 am

      Dear Epe I am very sorry we normally dont answer comments here. Please email us directly to M@hildendiaz.dk

  8. Cemile says:
    January 28, 2019 at 6:02 pm

    Hi Pio,

    My name is Cemile Hoeyer from Denmark,in my work as a interior design architect I recently saw your work, in a furnishing display, at ‘Image Collection’! Naturally stagde and framed landscapes(weeds), and I’m curious to have one of my own 🙂 What’s next step, like to explore more and a where we are price wise!?
    Looking forward to here more!

    Best regards

    Cemile Hoeyer

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