Episode 2 with Diana Scherer: Tijd om te groeien

In the second Symbiotopics episode, Lena and Bonnie visit Diana Scherer, who weaves plant roots into intricate patterns. By growing wheat on a template, she can manipulate the root system to create ‘woven’ patterns. The patterns that she creates by growing the roots are inspired by the geometric structures of cells, snowflakes and shells, but also shapes and patterns like bubble wrapping! We sat down with her to ask her about her work, her ‘collaboration’ with plants, and the role of the artist in relation to nature.

In her work, Scherer explores the relationship of man versus his natural environment, her artworks are characterized by the interaction between nature and culture. Lena and Bonnie talk with Diana about whether art and design can facilitate symbiotic relationships and about how her work as an artist is connected to science. As an artist, Scherer researches the growth and growing conditions of grasses and cultivates them in greenhouses. To develop the work she collaborated together with biologists and engineers from TU Delft and Radboud University, Nijmegen. To cultivate – in the old sense of cultivate and care – does not mean to allow, but to discipline. Perhaps Diana’s work is not really symbiotic in that sense, as she collaborates with the plants, but she also controls and manipulates them. However, the outcome of the growth process cannot be forced and needs time. Diana sees her work as an intuitive collaboration with vegetation and despite her interventions, the outcome is always a little bit of a surprise.

Listen to the Symbiotoptics podcast here! https://open.spotify.com/episode/1M44t2jkLoCUUrA5jolr34

If you want to take a look at Diana’s work, take a look at her website: https://dianascherer.nl/

Photo credits: Diana Scherer