Horti x ÆSTHESIA | A Plant Shop Experience

It is a dream come true to share that Horti & ÆSTHESIA will be presenting a one-night only immersive experience of the world of 6 medicinal flowers in an actual plant shop!

For an evening come join us in the Horti Play Jungle where you’ll be able to sit back, relax, and meditate to the sight, sound, and scent of the worlds most medicinal flowers and enjoy a glass of Chamomile tea while surrounded by bountiful house plants.

Guests will gather in the main room to start the evening with an artist talk as we explain what inspired this work and how we are using it to partner with rehab clinics, cancer hospitals, and more. Surveys will be given out to document stress levels as you explore and spend 15 minute sessions in a limited space immersive sensory room.

This event will be happening on Friday, November 22nd, from 6-8pm at Horti Play in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Space is limited so this is a ticketed event but we tried to keep the price down as low as possible at $20.

You can get your ticket by clicking the event flyer or email ashleyggarnerstudios@gmail.com for any further information or questions. I’m so excited to host this work inside an actual plant shop for the very first time, it feels so right. I hope to see you all there!

Horti Play Shop, 70 Eckford St, Brooklyn, NY

https://heyhorti.com/

ÆSTHESIA Origins

ÆSTHESIA is a project that in the span of 4 years has developed from a one-off collaboration with a musical friend into a life long series and lifestyle change. For those of you that are confused by this strange emboldened name starting off today’s passage let me explain. In a nutshell, ÆSTHESIA is a multi-sensory body of work that explores the therapeutic benefits of plants. I act as an executive producer who designs the concept and work with a team of collaborators to develop the sensory experience of different plants including: compositions of their sound vibrations, their scent, taste, and sight via photos and videos.

As mentioned, this work evolved from a previous series started with electronic musician (and my Miami transplant friend) ALURIA. In March, 2015, after a night spent catching up since both having recently moved to New York we realized that we needed to create something together. I began researching about sound vibrations and came up with an idea involving the Solfeggio Frequencies (a tuning system used in Ancient Gregorian chants) and making a collection of songs and videos together. 2 years later we completed SYNÆSTHESIA, a 6-channel video and sound collection and had our first solo exhibition smack dab in the middle of Manhattan!

Looking back, it felt like within days of seeing that show go up it became crystal clear what our next steps were going to be. There was something magical about this work, it was different then anything I had ever done before. It had a life beyond me, beyond ALURIA, beyond anyone that had been involved in its physical creation. It felt like the work had called on us to bring it to life and help it become fully realized. Once we saw all of the videos playing in one space at the same time, hearing the lulling sounds echoing throughout the space, seeing these floral meditation circles outlined on the floor, the work was about the plants. We didn’t know it but it had always been about the plants and finding a connection with the natural world around us, and so we were going to try again.

Installations images of SYNÆSTHESIA solo exhibition at Gallery 151, NYC, 2017

ÆSTHESIA “Medicinal Flower Collection”

ÆSTHESIA is a Greek root origin word meaning “sensation or feeling”. We changed the name of the work to this because the work was new now. Sure, it had the same visual approach and the same focus on multi-sensory experiences, but instead of a central core around the Solfeggio Frequencies we were going to record the vibrations of the plants in the videos for audio and include scent and taste elements as well. Since beginning seriously in 2017, the process of researching for ÆSTHESIA - diving deep into the world of plants and botany, learning about all the ways humans have thought about them, imagined them, learned from them, experimented with them, manipulated and mutilated them - it has been life-altering.

I grew up in North Carolina, deep in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. You could say I had a typical countryside childhood, playing in creeks, climbing trees, hiking and camping, running around with friends. But the moment I entered middle school and a world of ballet/competitive dance everything changed. I became introduced to Julliard and New York and all it’s glamorous wonders; my heart and head were sold. Overnight the countryside went from rolling landscapes for imaginary ship battles to lifeless untamed patches of grass and shrubbery . Nature seemed slow and dull to me, a place of the past in comparison to the electricity and constant movement of the city. I proceeded to make it my number one goal to move to NYC and pursue a life there in some way.

By age 22, I did in fact make it to the city and went on to work a string of jobs in the upper-crust fashion and art industries. One of those jobs happened to be working night shifts at prominent fashion photo-studio, Pier59. Many of the clients would buy beautiful flower arrangements for the waiting areas of their celebrity talent on set for the day and then throw them away once everything was wrapped. I couldn’t bear to see such beautiful creations be tossed so before I clocked out each night I would save them from waste bins and end up bringing home several large shopping bags bursting with bouquets. It’s no coincidence that these same flowers would eventually end up in my photos and videos.

Self portrait at home in Savannah, GA, 2013

Picture of me at Pier59 Studios with front desk flower arrangements, 2016

At the time that I was bringing these beauties home from the studio and working them into my own art I never once considered them as anything more than another prop and/or new temporary room decor. I never thought about the fact that they were once life structures, growing from the roots of the Earth, and then suddenly cut down one day, shipped to a flower shop in Manhattan, bought by a florist, built into an arrangement, delivered to Pier59 Studios, thrown into the trash and then in their last moments of life picked up by me. I never thought about how this plant never decided to grow because it wanted to decorate our photos or tables or corners of otherwise empty rooms. This plant decided to grow because that is what plants do - they grow. For themselves. For their species survival. They are not here for us and our entertainment and they do not need us to continue being here. In fact, they’d probably be better off if we weren’t.

This thought did not really dawn on me until 2017 when I started researching for ÆSTHESIA and reading the book The Secret Life of Plants by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird. It has changed the way I think about everything. Without plants we would not exist. I rely on them and yet I have regarded them so casually, as though they were put here for my own visual pleasure and art for art’s sake bullshit. I trash the earth that I rely on for survival daily. It is shocking how far climate change has intensified due to ignorance, greed, and exploitation of resources that when exhausted will undoubtedly result in our death. It is shocking to me that I know this but have chosen to often ignore it on a daily basis, in part due to how overwhelming this fact really is.

These are the things I think about every day now. Not about my next art show, or connecting with the right curator, networking, posting enough, or submitting to contests and grants. Now I think about how can I cut down on my carbon footprint more. How can I get more involved with community and global efforts to help save the soil. How can I help save these plants that I have grown so fascinated by and fond of. That I have grown to love in so many different ways. What can I do to actually help make the world better? Not a better place, but better, healthier. How can I help heal it? And that is not something that you can do in the confides of your home or behind a computer screen or in a gallery. You have to get out and get your hands dirty. You have to take physical action. You also have to educate yourself, something I feel many people stop doing after they get out of school, and I admittedly have done the past few years while immersing myself in hustle and grind of being in the New York “art world”.

Behind the scenes from the making of ÆSTHESIA, 2017-2019

Through the making of ÆSTHESIA many things have changed. My priorities have changed. I have changed. I used to proudly described myself as someone who thrived off of stress, but after a serious burn out last year I really began to slow down and spend more time outside with nature. Nearly a year later I can confidently say that my stress levels have dropped significantly to a point that I finally broke a nasty life long habit of stress nail-biting.

In evenings and weekends I am now reading as often as I can about the world of plants or watching nature and climate documentaries instead of going out to bars or late night events. The way that I eat and the amount of waste I produce has dropped considerably. And most excitedly for me, I see a future now where my art can exist away from the city, without the validation of the fine art market, and still be doing something that I feel fulfilled by. I feel excited about the idea of making art for purposes that are beyond making art for people who like art. Not that there is anything wrong with that at all, I certainly have my fair share of art for art sake creations, but now it feels like there is so much more.

Today, ÆSTHESIA has developed 6 experiences for our “Medicinal Flower Collection” (Marigold, Wild Rose, Tiger Lily, Echinacea, Lavender, Chamomile). This collection has been installed in rehab clinics, universities, galleries, film festivals, and is continuing to develop into new experiences for cross-country shows, workshops, and data gathering group studies. We are beginning to work directly with hospitals and health clinics and are diving into different types of plants ranging from house plants to carnivorous, endangered, edible, poisonous, muck crops, and species that rely on bee’s as pollinators.

Right now, the team and I are working on new videos, sounds, and shows. I will continue to use this News platform to keep you up to date on my research for this work, behind the scenes material, new content and shows. I’m also open to hearing any thoughts or feelings that you may have on this work. Are there certain plants or plant species you are interested in learning more about? How is the work making you feel when you watch it or listen to it? Or even reach out to just say hello, the team and I would love to hear from you! ÆSTHESIA has been such a community experience and the more we hear from you the more we understand how to make ways that can help us all connect more with nature. If you aren’t familiar with ÆSTHESIA just click the button below to watch the previews of the first six videos and hear the sounds of some of the worlds most medicinal flowers.

Mermaid Food Print Sale: One Week Only

I am excited to be starting this week with news that has been hard to sit on all summer….For the first time ever I am doing a print sale of my most popular work, Mermaid Food. This was the first body of fine art work that I made in the middle of 2015 in the midst of some major life transitions. I had just moved out of an apartment, gotten out of an abusive relationship, left a toxic job, and was exploring the camera and creation in a new way. Through the darkness I was finding the light, and thus was born Mermaid Food.

The photos and film explored 6 of the most noted mermaids in Greek and Mesopotamian mythology. As my version of the many stories goes, mermaids were originally humans that were plucked from earth by the gods and turned into winged phoenix’s who’s primary goal was to watch over Persephone. But soon the phoenix’s fell in love with the other mortals turned hand-maidens to the gods - Icarus and his father.

One day as Persephone was napping in the woods the phoenix’s ran off to play with Icarus and that was when Persephone was famously kidnapped by Hades. Persephone’s mother was so angry at the phoenix’s that she ripped their wings off and cast them to the sea, but left them immortal.

Soon after that Icarus and his father built wings to be able to join their lovers, the phoenix’s, in the sky, but as we know they flew to close to the sun and died at the bottom of the ocean. The phoenix’s, now mermaids, were forced to watch their one true love’s die at the bottom of the sea and to this day kill any man that dares to act like he loves them in the same way Icarus and his father did. Their siren song is their calling to the gods for mercy, to turn them mortal so that they too may die with their love at the bottom of the sea.

Test prints in the studio

I have spent the past year testing different fine art papers to make sure that it is represented the way it is meant to be and worked on pricing structures so that it can still be accessible. To celebrate my birthday I am doing a special early launch of these images for 6x9” at $40 each! For one week only from Sept 23-30th you can find 9 images from Mermaid Food as well as a special edition Collection Set (includes 11 images packaged in an archival print box) in the Print Shop.

After September 30th these prints won’t be available again until the Holiday’s! If you are interested in learning more about Mermaid Food click here. If you have any questions about the sale feel free to email me at ashleyggarnerstudios@gmail.com

Seasonal Studio Update: Planting New Seeds

Hello and welcome to my new ‘News’ page where I will be sharing studio updates each season, new work, research for ongoing projects, and other random tid-bits I think you might be interested in. I promise not to overwhelm you or abuse your newsletter subscription, but I do hope to be more active in sharing the makings of the studio.

For those of you that have been following my work for awhile you may notice that the website looks a little different. To put it simply, 2019 has been a year of reorganizing my personal life and as a result I felt like the site needed to reflect this fresh perspective. Originally this space was built with the interest of appealing to fashion magazines, PR houses, designers, and models. For a brief moment commercial advertising work, and then came the fine art market . Today, I once again have found myself having a shift of focus in what is driving my motivation to create. A shift that has been so great that it has driven me to not only redesign my website, but in many ways redesign my life as well.

images from hikes in New York, self-portrait in home, studio installs and trips to the NY Botanic Garden and Staten Island Park

In the last few years I have been fortunate to feel a great amount of success with where my work has gone and the people it has connected me to, but I have also felt an equal amount of defeat and disappointment. For the better part of it all I have felt that I was put into situations that became abusive, either to myself and team, or to the work itself. After participating in a few shows this year I have decided to stop actively hustling for opportunities of exhibition because I do not feel that it is actually helping progress the work in any real or substantial way. My work is not created for the sole purpose of an exhibition. If one happens - great! But if I am not feeling fulfilled by doing shows then what is the point of doing them? Is that really the only reason that I create? Of course not, but sometimes you can get so wrapped up in the whirlwind of shows that you forget.

I do not make a living off of my artwork. I have a 9-5 day job, and always have. I feel that in having that kind of job and financial security it gives me the freedom to let my artwork be about anything I want it to be about with no major risks on the line, (other than my ego). Over the past few years I have admittedly invested thousands of dollars of my own money into my artwork, specifically exhibitions of my artwork, and I have not even come close to making any of that back in sales. While good experiences are lovely and all, a girl has got to pay the bills and that is far more important in a world of capitalism than any emotional support or the tired promise of “exposure”. Don’t get me wrong, I understand you have to start somewhere, but you also need to know when to draw the line and say, “Enough is enough.”

I am fine with all that has been done now, but I refuse to continue moving forward sacrificing my own financial stability with money that I make at a job that actually does respect my time of producing something with a paycheck. These are the things that I have learned people have to do to “play the game” in the fashion and art industries in NY, but more often than not just end up penniless, burnt out, and taken advantage of, and at this point in my life I am refraining from it for my mental and emotional health, and for the health of my art.

exhibitions of SYNAESTHESIA & AESTHESIA 2017-2019

One sunny afternoon in the summer of 2015, as I was playing and experimenting with friends and flowers in the studio for the video series, SYNAESTHESIA, has now, 4 years later, turned into a new found life passion for plants, botany, and horticulture. I have begun reading as many books as I can get my hands on on the topic and it has lead to lifestyle changes in the way that I eat, cutting out beef almost completely, and new hobbies of home gardening and hiking. It has also shifted my perspective in ways that I can use the tools that I have (such as photo and video) to help educate people on their local wildlife, climate change, and bring awareness to certain plants at risk and their uses and needs. I am so enamored with the world of plants that I hope to one day find myself working in a garden or botanical observatory on a daily basis!

I want to find more ways that I can effectively help support the environment. Living in NYC it’s easy to see everyday how we as humans are wrecking this earth, and while I do my part, even if it’s just a little bit, every day I want to find as many ways as I can to actually help. Not just saying that I’m helping but in reality I’m just helping myself. I want to be able to give money when I can to organizations that are out there saving endangered wildlife, I want to be able to go out there myself and get my hands dirty whenever I can, I want to really help be an active force in helping save the most important thing in the world: the world itself.

New Prints + NY Botanical Garden

You will find in the Shop page a new listing of prints from the series SYNÆSTHESIA that are themed around the chakras through flowers. The chakra system originated in India between 1500 and 500 BC in the oldest text called the Vedas. There are seven basic chakras, and they all exist within the subtle body, overlaying the physical body. Through modern physiology we can see that these seven chakras correspond exactly to the seven main nerve ganglia which emanate from the spinal column. The health of one’s chakras is directly connected to the health of the physical body, the mind, and the emotional well-being of a person. Each print represents a different chakra. Starting at $35 for an 8x10” print and going up in size to 20x24”.

As we all know by now, the Amazon forest is on fire. More than 36% of the worlds plant life is considered threatened, and statistics are only getting worse. In an effort to give back and help support the botanical community, I have decided to donate 25% of any and all sales from the series ÆSTHESIA. and SYNÆSTHESIA to the New York Botanical Garden, which operates as one of the world’s largest plant research and conservation programs.

New-York-Botanical-Gardens.1-1200x638.jpg

Please have fun scrolling up and down exploring the new site layout, and let me know your thoughts. More posts coming soon that dive deeper into specific project updates . I hope for this to become a space where we can connect in deeper and more personal ways and detach ourselves from the algorithms, censorship, and limitations of social media platforms. Often my work doesn’t read best in the format that is forced upon me through other website’s layouts, while on my website I have full control of how you experience what I create, and isn’t that the best starting place for us to even be able to have a conversation about it? Leave a comment below if you feel so provoked, I only bite when I’m mad ;)