Flourish

I once read that economies only flourish if they have a labor force to take advantage of. This has been true, slaves, serfs, sharecroppers, tenant farmers, migrant laborers, blue collar workers, gig workers have built our economies. The “Flourish” project is a set of 200+ screen prints on handmade paper that emulate the Flora Danica china pattern in the centers of the prints I have drawn botanical illustrations of classic cash crops. “Flourish” also includes 11 screen printed wallpapers inspired by the same cash crops designed while in residence at the Lloyd Library & Museum in Cincinnati, OH.

Flora Danica is a set of Danish scientific botanical illustrations produced between 1752 and 1872 in Copenhagen. Flora Danica is also the name of the most expensive china pattern still made today. This dinnerware pattern by Royal Copenhagen was first designed in 1790 as a gift for Catherine the Great of Russian. It is still made as it was then—hand cast with bone china clay and hand painted with ornate geometric gold and pink edging and at its center—scientific botanical illustrations copied from the print folios of the same name.

The hope of “Flourish” is to begin a discussion about economies and labor by bringing together crops that notoriously exploited populations throughout history and today with the exclusive Flora Danica dinnerware.