Pipilotti Rist | Radical Botany: The Politics of Flowers

Pipilotti Rist's Sparking of the Domesticated Synapses (2010) is included in Radical Botany: The Politics of Flowers, a group exhibition on view at the Alice Austen House in Staten Island, New York.

Radical Beauty showcases contemporary artists who use flowers as their primary subject to address pressing political issues affecting us all. The works span diverse themes including colonial history, immigration, sexism, racism, gender politics, homophobia and class. The artists employ flowers both symbolically and literally – through formal arrangements, seed planting, decay, and disruption – to express deeply human struggles.

In Rist's work on view, she illuminates the poetry hidden within household tedium, transforming everyday objects into vessels of sensory awakening. The glowing vase pulses with light, suggesting the domestic space as both tradwife trap and sanctuary. Her signature use of illumination animates the mundane – a watering can, cleaning spray, and wilting blooms - suggesting that consciousness flickers even within a cleaning routine's numbing repetition. Rist finds ecstasy in the ordinary, referencing both feminine labour and decoration while highlighting the tension between traditional gender roles and feminism.

To learn more about the exhibition, please visit the Alice Austen House website.