Step into the temporary exhibition hall on B1 of the Shanghai Natural History Museum, and a field of all-black metal flowers appears to bloom in silence on one side of the gallery. Hand-cut from metal sheets, they precisely replicate the forms of eight flowers, including roses, lilies and foxgloves, yet stripped of all natural hues — their hollow black silhouettes echo the rigorous structure of plant specimens in scientific illustrations.
These black silhouettes encapsulate the core theme of Only Tree Knows, a groundbreaking natural art exhibition.
Jointly organized by the Shanghai Natural History Museum and the Pudong Biyun Art Museum, the exhibition runs from May 1 to Aug 31. It brings together 22 works by 12 domestic and international artists, engaging in a cross-contextual dialogue with the museum's natural specimens to explore the profound theme of forest ecology and human coexistence.
"We collide the taxonomic research of science with the perceptual imagination of art, not to provide answers to ecological issues, but to help the public rediscover the hidden connections of nature," says curator Guo Xiaohui.
Breaking away from the one-way instruction of traditional science popularization, the cross-disciplinary exhibition takes forests as its core framework, connecting the above-ground vegetation realm and the underground mycelial network through specimens, installations, light and shadow, sound, AI-generated art, and other types of multimedia.
"Many people are used to viewing specimens but forget that forests are living; many love art yet rarely reflect on the ecological propositions behind it. We hope visitors can reread the story of forests with both rationality and sensibility," Guo adds.
As one of the exhibition's signature works, Zadok Ben-David's Black Flowers condenses plant forms into an existence between specimen and illusion, confronting the imbalance in the relationship between humans and nature.
"I paint these enlarged flowers black, not for beauty, but as a warning. Artists don't have solutions, but we can raise questions to make people rethink and protect nature," he states.
