When the Geraniums Bloom

Description: When the Geraniums Bloom is an exhibition by artist Hande Sever, who recalls her mother’s experience of the 1980 Turkish coup d'état through plants, soil, and compost. During that time, prisons were synonymous with torture centers—the most notorious of which were Metris, Diyarbakır and Ulucanlar. The artist’s mother was kept in the Metris Military Prison. While incarcerated, Sever’s mother planted beans as a reminder of the outside world and of her life before incarceration, where she tended geranium plants on her balcony. Through her mother’s narrative, Sever’s exhibition examines the state of exception that confined the outdoor activity of gardening to an indoor space, while unearthing historical events that led to the poetic implications and symbolism of the geranium flower within the Turkish Student Movement. Sever brings together the complexities of botanical symbolism and its influence on poetry, while revealing its shifts in meaning brought upon by US interventions in West Asia during the Cold War. MORE

Materials: Lima beans, 288 water glasses, steel strap hangers, text, m-audio speaker. Sound: an arrangement of Concierto de Aranjuez.

Image Description: Installation views, ‘Hande Sever: When the Geraniums Bloom’, Visitor Welcome Center Los Angeles, 2019. Photo: Josh Schaedel