Mr Plant: the ability of trees to adapt to art

French artist creates series that defies common sense

Anyone who has walked through the great Brazilian capitals must have come across at some point with trees fighting against the concrete., hugging poles and slipping through fences. Inspired by this impressive adaptability, French artist Christophe Guinet created TWIST, a series of sculptures that seem to defy common sense.

Better known as Monsieur Plant, Guinet identifies himself as a botanical artist and urban gardener. His sculptures from the series TWIST emerged from the desire to reproduce the unusual and unique shapes that tree trunks and branches acquire in years of growth influenced by multiple factors.

Guinet extracts this element of curiosity and elevates it to the extreme, creating sculptures representing bent tree trunks, twisted and twisted in ways that, at the same time, resemble natural shapes and defy common sense.

Never seen a tree grow in the shape of a heart, of the infinity symbol or even tying a knot in itself, but still whoever sees the carvings of TWIST (from English: twist) sincerely wonders if they are natural and if they were extracted directly from a forest.

The fact is that trees have a unique behavior and over the years they can naturally take on impressive shapes.. The Crooked Forest in Poland, having about 400 pine trees with trunks twisted at 90° at the base, is an ideal example.

If this forest can exist, so why wouldn't there be spring-shaped trunks? It is this common perspective that provokes the audience's unique reaction to Guinet's sculptures., making them truly admirable.

Throughout human history, many artists have been inspired by nature., seeking to reproduce their shapes and patterns or even developing special techniques capable of modifying living trees.

in asia, in the cultivation of bonsai several practices are used and tools to miniaturize large trees. All around the world, gardeners and artists dedicate themselves to ornamentation techniques such as the twisted trunk, that produces braided trunks. In joinery and luthieria, the wood is twisted by means of steam or ammonia chambers, creating beautiful curves of furniture and instruments.

Guinet, on the other hand, reproduces the curves of nature through processes more common to plastic artists and sculptors. The works of the collection TWIST are carved from plaster and then given a layer of pine bark which is meticulously applied, in order to create a convincing illusion of naturalness.

Monsieur Plant is an unusual artist, member of an unofficial school of artists inspired by nature as dedicated to reproducing its mysteries as protecting it. All of the artist's works can be viewed at his Instagram page.

Text prepared by the Conversion team +.