Flowers – Flora in Contemporary Art & Culture at Saatchi Gallery

12^th February 2025

Constance A

Constance A

12 February 2025

For those still wading through the dregs of winter and longing for spring’s first blush, the Saatchi Gallery offers a floral antidote. Flowers – Flora in Contemporary Art & Culture, an expansive new exhibition, sprawls across two floors and nine major galleries, promising a kaleidoscopic journey through the enduring presence of flowers in art, fashion, photography and design. At first glance, it appears to be a comprehensive love letter to botanic beauty. At closer inspection, it flirts with being an exhaustive catalogue: an all-encompassing survey that, in its ambition, sometimes verges on excess.

Flowers have, of course, long been fertile ground for artists, serving as vessels of symbolism: love, grief, sensuality, decay. The exhibition methodically traces this lineage, beginning with historical works that establish the floral tradition in art. A standout piece is Jean Baptiste Bosschaert’s Still Life with Flowers, a quintessential Flemish still life, rich with intricate detail and suffused with symbolic depth. From there, the exhibition leaps forward into contemporary interpretations, exploring how artists today continue to wield flowers as potent emblems of human emotion and societal commentary.

The sheer breadth of the show means that visitors are bound to find something that speaks to them. Room three, for instance, stands out as a highlight – an exploration of fashion’s fascination with florals, showcasing Buccellati’s delicate, hand-engraved silver blossoms alongside the extravagant creations of Vivienne Westwood and Mary Quant. Elsewhere, the exhibition veers into spectacle, most notably in room five, where Rebecca Louise Law’s La Fleur Morte transforms 2,000 square feet into an immersive mausoleum of dried flowers, with over 100,000 of them suspended midair. The installation is designed as an elegiac meditation on consumerism and our insatiable desire for beauty; it is also, unquestionably, an Instagram goldmine.

Other moments, however, feel like curatorial catch-alls. The room dedicated to Flowers in Music, Film and Literature is less a considered study than an assemblage of artefacts bearing floral imagery – album covers, book jackets and film posters. The effect is scattershot, a magpie’s collection of cultural fragments where the connections feel tenuous at best.

A late highlight comes in room seven with Extra-Natural, Miguel Chevalier’s interactive virtual garden, where digital flora bloom and wither in response to visitors’ movements through infrared sensors. The experience is both hypnotic and playful; watching guests twirl, dart and gesture as luminescent petals shift and morph is half the fun.

Ultimately, this is an exhibition designed for broad appeal – an accessible, visually seductive survey that is undeniably engaging. It leans into the social-media-ready aesthetic that defines many large-scale exhibitions today, but not without moments of genuine thoughtfulness. One leaves with the impression of having walked through an abundant, if slightly overgrown, garden. But then again, who ever complained about too many flowers?

Constance Ayrton
Image: Saatchi Flowers MattChungPhoto

Flowers – Flora in Contemporary Art & Culture is at from 12^th February until 5^th May 2025. For further information or to book visit the exhibition’s website here.