Organic Symetry
Jaime Bohm
Blue Mountains TAFE, Wentworth Falls Campus
I am 27, I studied Cert 3 Hort at TAFE in 2007 and I continued my studies by starting a Diploma of Horticulture at Blue Mountains TAFE in 2008.
I worked in the Construction Industry for about 7 years, and became aware at the level of unnecessary waste that occurs. Sustainability is not a product; it's a way of thinking.
I have always maintained an interest in plants and food production by building and maintaining micro-Aquaponic systems.
I focus my spare time on researching and developing systems for sustainable living, such as building with sustainable methods, living off the grid, home production of food and waste management.
I see myself in the future starting a sustainable design company.
Design Explanation
Plant designs conjure up ideas of heavily flowering plants burdened by unnatural volumes of blooms, crammed in to small spaces. Unnatural as they may seem they are very impressive when executed correctly showing how horticulturalists are pushing the physical boundaries of their media.
Throughout this year in my studies I have been collecting and classifying plants, this opened up to me the universe that is flora @ 35x magnification. Botanists have used words to name parts of a flowers anatomy, but none of them could elaborate on the pure beauty of what I was seeing. ‘How many people out there have no idea what is going on down there, in this tiny alien landscape?’ I thought.
Instead of trying to cram many flowers into a small space I have opted to create one large flower into a small space. By using a variety of maples positioned at various angles I have tried to reconstruct the tiny world of the individual flower on a macro scale, in effect shrinking the viewer to an ‘ants eye view’ so I can show them how colourful, vibrant, elegant and majestic the world of a single flower can be.
I chose what I wanted out of the display:
- I had to use the plants in an unconventional way
- I had to stretch the theme of ‘no theme’ to the edge
- It had to cost next to nothing
- It had to WOW
The decision to use the maples was a natural, the vibrant colours just screamed out to me, their architecture was perfectly suited to what I wanted to accomplish.
You will have noticed I have spelt it symetry. This is to emphasise the harmony of the design, Sym stands for symbol, symmetrical and symphony all are places I aim to take the mind of the viewer.
No north point has been provided with my drawings, this is because it is not necessary, being of symmetrical design, it is adaptable to any aspect.
Construction of the display is, I believe, straight forward. The trees that are held in position by one person while the other two in the team back fill around the given area to provide support for the trees involved. Some trees are laid directly on the ground, although this is not ideal for the growing conditions of the tree the visual impact of what is accomplished, is well worth the discomfort the trees will sustain for the period of one week.
Being completely experimental, I have considered the display not creating the visual impact desired, I believe if this is the case, the situation can be resolved by doubling the amount of trees revolving around the central tree.
All I really know is that I have never seen anything like this in my whole life.
