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Thijs Biersteker’s Digital Sculptures Translate Climate Data into Urgent Calls to Action

by Aurelia Butler 16 July 2025, 16:29

“ORIGIN.” All images courtesy of Thijs Biersteker, shared with permission

Thijs Biersteker’s Digital Sculptures Translate Climate Data into Urgent Calls to Action

July 16, 2025

ArtClimateDesignFoodNatureScience

Kate Mothes

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An unassuming cacao tree in Indonesia has made a unique connection to a high-tech artwork in China. Thanks to multimedia digital artist Thijs Biersteker, “ORIGIN” is a sculpture — a “digital twin” — that reflects the elemental experiences of the tropical tree through pulses of light.

“When it rains in Indonesia, you see the sap flow through the sculpture in real time,” the artist says. “When the air quality shifts, the flows respond. During a heatwave, the tree visibly struggles. This real-time installation reveals just how fragile the cacao supply chain has become.”

A majority of cacao, the primary ingredient in chocolate, is cultivated in places that are also the most vulnerable to the effects of the climate crisis. Extreme weather, habitat destruction, and other issues also mean that global food resiliency is increasingly threatened.

For Biersteker, data provides unique insights into changes on the ground, and through a recent collaboration with the Indonesian Coffee and Cocoa Research Institute (ICCRI), he devised a way to literally illuminate environmental impacts.

The artist is particularly interested in the relationship between data and nature, especially our scientific understanding of climate change and how it affects biodiversity, food, and habitats. Hooking up sensors to a specimen at ICCRI’s research site in Java, Bierksteker created a translucent, sculptural mirror of the tree, which is currently installed at Zaishui Art Museum in the city of Rizhao, Shandong Province.

Another work, “WITHER,” in collaboration with UNICEF, comprises a tropical installation with flickering leaves representing rainforest loss. Each flicker symbolizes 128 square meters of deforestation, based on data from Amazon rainforest watch groups. And “ECONTINUUM,” a collaboration with Stefano Mancuso, invites us into a kind of “conversation” occurring between tree roots in a twinkling digital composition. The work nods to recent scientific discoveries that suggest trees communicate with one another via their intricate subterranean systems to provide or request nutrients or warn others of dangers like disease or infestations.

“WITHER”

For “ORIGIN,” the live cacao tree in Java transmits information, its digital copy animating with fluctuating light. “This mirrors the role of the institutions behind it: making the invisible visible and reconnecting people with the systems that feed them,” Biersteker says in a statement. “It is where data begins to speak to the imagination and where data-driven art becomes a new language for change.”

Explore more on Bierksteker’s website and Instagram. If you enjoy pieces that explore the intersection of data and nature, you’ll also like Marshmallow Laser Feast’s “Of the Oak” installation at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Details of cacao tree in Java and “ORIGIN”

Detail of “ORIGIN”

Detail of “ECONTINUUM”

Detail of “ORIGIN”

“WITHER”

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A New Book Cultivates a Rich Survey of 300 Magnificent Gardens
by Aurelia Butler 15 July 2025, 20:45
Taylor Cullity Lethlean with Paul Thompson, Australian Garden, Cranbourne Gardens, Victoria, Australia (2006 and 2012). Photo by John Gollings
A New Book Cultivates a Rich Survey of 300 Magnificent Gardens
July 15, 2025
ArtBooksDesignNature
Grace Ebert
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From the humble backyard plot to the royal Water Theatre Grove at Versailles, gardens have long been a source of sustenance, beauty, and spiritual communion. A forthcoming book from Phaidon sprouts from this history as it celebrates how these sites of joy and grandeur endure throughout the ages.
The Contemporary Garden travels to 300 green spaces across 40 countries, surveying the everlasting link between horticulture, nature, and aesthetics. Included in its 300-plus pages are private and public spaces in a wide array of styles, from wild plots in urban centers to impeccably trimmed topiaries to designs that prize water features as much as foliage.
While the book peers into some gardens only accessible to a few, many of its pages highlight well-trodden areas open to the public, like New York’s elevated Little Island, designed by Heatherwick Studio. Perhaps unsurprisingly, several spaces also double as outdoor galleries—including the High Line in Manhattan—or are artworks themselves. In the latter category is Gabriel Orozco’s The Orozco Garden, which bridges sculpture and horticulture through intricately laid brickwork and overgrown grasses at South London Gallery.
Bridging natural sciences with art and design, The Contemporary Garden showcases how, even in this increasingly digital age, green spaces continue to be one of humanity’s perennial fascinations.
Slated for release in late September, The Contemporary Garden is available for pre-order in the Colossal Shop.
Kim Wilkie for the 10th Duke of Buccleuch, Orpheus, Boughton House, Kettering, Northamptonshire, England, 2009. Photo by Kim Wilkie
Louis Benech and Jean-Michel Othoniel, Water Theatre Grove, Château de Versailles, Versailles, France (2015). Photo © EPV/Thomas Garnier
Dominique and Benoît Delomez, Jardin intérieur à ciel ouvert, Athis-de-l’Orne, Normandy, France, (2000–11). Photo courtesy of Benoît and Dominique Delomez
Erik Dhont, Bonemhoeve, Damme, West Flanders, Belgium, (2005). Photo © Jean-Pierre Gabriel
Gabriel Orozco, The Orozco Garden, South London Gallery, London, England, (2016). Photo by Andy Stagg
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Tenderly Crocheted Sculptures by Caitlin McCormack Contend with Existential Dread
by Aurelia Butler 10 July 2025, 14:15
“Let’s Get Demonized (Instructional Polyhedron).” Photos by Jason Chen. All images courtesy of Caitlin McCormack, shared with permission
Tenderly Crocheted Sculptures by Caitlin McCormack Contend with Existential Dread
July 10, 2025
ArtCraft
Kate Mothes
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Caitlin McCormack is known for her crocheted, skeletal animals and otherworldly plants that nod to a speculative future in which the earth has endured environmental catastrophe. Motifs of skeletal baby birds and mammals read as cautionary tales about the human relationship with nature today and how much more disconnected—and disastrous—it could become.
Through crochet, with which we often associate domestic comfort and even quaintness, the artist channels a nostalgic medium to peer more closely at what we ignore in the present. Bundles of stones and knick-knacks encased in lacy fibers are complemented by skeletal specimens and strange botanical sculptures.
“Never Let the Party Die”
A new body of work that goes on view this weekend in There You Will Find the Stone at Harman Projects. The show includes a nebulous, blue wall sculpture titled “Earth Before Eyeballs Existed,” containing niches for tiny bundles of found objects. Pairing a slightly unnerving hue and a collection of tenderly crocheted packets, McCormack illuminates a reverence for tiny overlooked or discarded items.
Many of the titles of the artist’s pieces express a sense of dread, tension, or excess. A series of bundles titled They Come Back But They’re Never the Same and sculptures like “Don’t Let the Party Die” hint at a human crisis of control. “You Picked the Wrong One,” with a nest of unsettling, skeletal baby birds, brims with foreboding.
McCormack’s recent work emerges also from her attempts to process loss and illness in her family, including her own medical diagnoses. “These experiences have catalyzed a reevaluation of deep-rooted existential positions, specifically those grounded in skepticism, atheism, and a lifetime of anxiety,” she says in a statement. These pieces “serve as manifestations of an evolving worldview shaped by grief, loss, and an obsessive search for meaning.”
There You Will Find the Stone runs from July 12 to August 2 in New York City. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.
“Earth Before Eyeballs Existed”
Detail of “Earth Before Eyeballs Existed”
“Milkvetch, How Much More Can They Hold”
Detail of “Milkvetch, How Much More Can They Hold”
“They Come Back But They’re Never the Same V”
“You Picked the Wrong One”
Detail of “You Picked the Wrong One”
Detail of “Never Let the Party Die”
“I Came Here to Try to Have a Good Time”
Detail of “I Came Here to Try to Have a Good Time”
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An Astronaut Finds Symbiosis with Nature in Agus Putu Suyadnya’s Uncanny Paintings
by Aurelia Butler 6 June 2025, 20:51
“Utopian Visions of Hope” (2025). All images courtesy of Sapar Contemporary, shared with permission
An Astronaut Finds Symbiosis with Nature in Agus Putu Suyadnya’s Uncanny Paintings
June 6, 2025
ArtClimate
Grace Ebert
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In Symbiotic Utopia, Agus Putu Suyadnya imagines a future in which tropical ecosystems not unlike those of Southeast Asia become sites for humanity to commune with nature.
Surrounded by verdant foliage and moss-covered roots that seem to glow with blue and green fuzz, a recurring astronaut figure approaches each scene with comfort and ease. In one work, the suited character cradles a chimpanzee à la notable conservationist Jane Goodall and waves a large bubble wand to create trails of the iridescent orbs in another. And in “Cosmic Self Healing,” the figure sits in a comfortable chair, a large potted plant at his side. This typical domestic scene, though, is situated on the moon, and Earth’s swirling atmosphere appears behind him.
“Cosmic Self Healing” (2022)
While alluring in color and density, Suyadnya’s paintings are surreal and portend an eerie future irredeemably impacted by the climate crisis. The astronaut, after all, is fully covered in a protective capsule, a sign that people can only survive with this critical adaptation. “Humans cannot live without nature,” the artist says, “whereas the natural world without mankind will continue to survive. So why, as humans, do we think we have the upper hand?”
Symbiotic Utopia is on view through July 7 at Sapar Contemporary in New York. Find more from Suyadnya on Instagram.
Detail of “Cosmic Self Healing” (2022)
“A Hug for Hope”
“Steady Humility Wins Every Time” (2025)
“Yearning for Home” (2024)
“Playful Nature is the Future” (2024)
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In Surreal Portraits, Rafael Silveira Tends to the Garden of Consciousness
by Aurelia Butler 29 May 2025, 14:15
“Magnetic” (2025), oil on canvas, 23.62 × 23.62 inches. All images courtesy of the artist and DCG Contemporary, shared with permission
In Surreal Portraits, Rafael Silveira Tends to the Garden of Consciousness
May 29, 2025
Art
Kate Mothes
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With scenic vistas for faces, blossoms for eyes, or nothing but coral above the shoulders, Rafael Silveira’s surreal portraits summon aspects of human consciousness that span the spectrum of the wonderful and the weird. The Brazilian artist describes his work as “a profound dive into the human mind,” merging flowers, landscapes, and uncanny hybrid features into visages that channel humor with a slightly sinister undertone.
Silveira’s forthcoming solo exhibition, Agricultura Cósmica at DCG Contemporary, traverses “the fertile terrain of the subconscious,” the gallery says. “With a nod to pop surrealism and the uncanny, his work imagines the mind as a garden where thoughts are seeds and images (are) the wildflowers that sprout.”
“PLEEESE” (2025), oil on canvas, 23.62 × 23.62 inches
Silveira works predominantly in oil, using panel or canvas as a surface and occasionally surrounding his works with ornate, hand-carved wooden frames. The sculptural details of the frames, like an anatomical heart in “Eyeconic Couple” or an all-seeing eye topping “A Crocância do Tempo” — “the crunchiness of time” in Portuguese — read like talismans.
Many of Silveira’s compositions begin with a traditional head-and-shoulders portrait composition as a starting point, but instead of skin we see a distant horizon, like in “Magnetic,” or a figure’s head supplanted by a stalk of coral or a column of fire. Other pieces omit the human outline altogether in amusing arrangements of vivid flowers, which suggest wide eyes and addled expressions. While human forms shed their emotional autonomy as they converge with their surroundings, the flora in works like “OMG” and “PLEEESE” are a profusion of awe and desire.
Agricultura Cósmica opens in London on June 12 and continues through July 10. The show runs concurrently alongside an exhibition titled Plural by embroidery artist Flavia Itiberê. See more on the artist’s website and Instagram.
“Eyeconic Couple” (2025), oil on panel and hand-carved frame, 15.75 × 35.43 inches
“Inside Out” (2025), oil on canvas, 35.4 x 31.5 inches
“A Crocância do Tempo” (2025), oil on panel and hand-carved frame, 35.4 x 31.5 inches
“The Artifice of Eternity” (2025), oil on canvas, 23.62 × 31.5 inches
“OMG” (2025), oil on canvas, 23.62 × 23.62 inches
“Paixão Ardente” (2025), oil on panel and hand-carved frame, 35.4 x 31.5 inches
“The Roots of Reality” (2025), oil on canvas, 35.4 x 31.5 inches
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A Unique Portfolio of Hilma af Klint’s Botanical Drawings Communes with Nature’s Spiritual Side
by Aurelia Butler 21 May 2025, 15:01
“Woodrush, Viola, Golden Saxifrage, Field Horsetail, Marsh Marigold, Lesser Celandine, Sedge (Frylet, Violen, Gullpudran, Åkerfräknet, Kabelöken, Svalörten, Starrgräset)” from the portfolio ‘Dornach Nature Studies’ (1919), watercolor, pencil, and ink on paper from a portfolio of 46 drawings, sheet: 19 5/8 × 10 9/16 inches. All images courtesy of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, shared with permission
A Unique Portfolio of Hilma af Klint’s Botanical Drawings Communes with Nature’s Spiritual Side
May 21, 2025
ArtHistoryNature
Kate Mothes
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With the Industrial Revolution in full swing at the turn of the 20th century, jobs and opportunities attracted people to burgeoning cities. New technologies were being developed at breakneck speed and discoveries within the natural sciences introduced people to invisible yet potent concepts like radio waves and X-rays.
During this period of social transformation, philosophical or occult religious movements like Spiritualism and Helena Blavatsky’s Theosophy offered ways to not only connect within a like-minded community but to explore the afterlife—the so-called spirit world—and the very fabric of the universe.
“Sunflower (Solrosen)” from the portfolio ‘Dornach Nature Studies’ (1919), watercolor, pencil, ink, and metallic paint on paper from a portfolio of 46 drawings, sheet: 19 3/4 × 10 9/16 inches
For Hilma af Klint (1862–1944), like many who sought refuge and inspiration in these belief systems, a spiritual link to her surroundings united her with the natural world during “a period of massive change…as people from all levels of society were searching for something new to hold on to,” Johan af Klint and Hedvig Ersman wrote about the Swedish artist’s spiritual journey.
Now on view at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind the Flowers highlights the institution’s recent acquisition of a phenomenal, 46-leaf portfolio called Nature Studies.
During the spring and summer of 1919 and 1920, af Klint recorded Sweden’s seasonal flora, from lilies of the valley and sunflowers to violets and cherry blossoms. Beyond traditional botanical studies, the artist incorporates her characteristic abstractions and diagrams, surrounding each rendering with esoteric annotations and geometries.
“One has to think of the realm of the nature spirits as the realm of thought; these entities hover around us, some like driving winds, others like soft summer breezes,” af Klint once said.
“Lily of The Valley, Water Avens, Common Milkwort (Liljekonvaljen, Fårkummern, Jungfrulinet)” from the portfolio ‘Dornach Nature Studies’ (1919), watercolor, pencil, ink, and metallic paint on paper from a portfolio of 46 drawings, sheet: 19 5/8 × 10 5/8 inches
Grids with unique color relationships or energetic spirals accompany renderings of field woodrush or marsh marigold, and tree specimens are paired with dotted checkerboards. “Through these forms, af Klint seeks to reveal, in her words, ‘what stands behind the flowers,’” the museum says, “reflecting her belief that studying nature uncovers truths about the human condition.”
What Stands Behind the Flowers continues through September 27 and is accompanied by a catalogue that is slated for release on Tuesday. Find your copy on Bookshop, and plan your visit to MoMA on the museum’s website.
“Yellow Star-of-Bethlehem, Lungwort, Coltsfoot, Nailwort, Pasqueflower (Vårlöken, Lungörten, Hästhoförten, Nagelörten, Backsippan)” from the portfolio ‘Dornach Nature Studies’ (1919), watercolor, pencil, and ink on paper from a portfolio of 46 drawings, sheet: 19 5/8 × 10 9/16 inches
“Common Lime (Linden)” from the portfolio ‘Dornach Nature Studies’ (1919), watercolor, pencil, ink, and metallic paint on paper from a portfolio of 46 drawings, sheet: 19 5/8 × 10 5/8 inches
“Tulip (Tulpanen)” from the portfolio ‘Dornach Nature Studies’ (1920), watercolor, pencil, ink, and metallic paint on paper from a portfolio of 46 drawings, sheet: 19 5/8 × 10 5/8 inches
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In Luminous Portraits, Florence Solis Invokes Feminine Power Amid Constraint
by Aurelia Butler 22 April 2025, 20:09
“Makahiya IX” (2025),
acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16 inches. All photos by Julieta Christy Sarmiento, courtesy of The Mission Projects, shared with permission
In Luminous Portraits, Florence Solis Invokes Feminine Power Amid Constraint
April 22, 2025
Art
Grace Ebert
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When touched, the hypersensitive makahiya plant folds its minuscule leaflets inward, protecting itself from any potential threat.
Florence Solis draws on this defensive response in an ethereal collection of portraits. Beginning with digital collages that meld figures and delicate, organic ornaments, the Filipino-Canadian artist translates the imagined forms to the canvas. Shrouded in dainty, beaded veils or entwined with botanicals, each protagonist appears bound and concealed, their bodies and faces obscured by hair or grass.
“Sirena” (2025), acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24 inches
As Solis sees it, the figures may be restricted, but they’re also able to find strength and transformation. “Filipino women, much like the makahiya, have been taught to yield, to soften, to take up less space,” she says. “And yet, beneath this quietness lies an undeniable force—one that persists, adapts, and reclaims space in its own way.”
Working in saturated, often single-color palettes, Solis renders figures who appear to harness magical powers. She references Filipino folklore and the belief in the power of the everyday to lead to the divine, painting women rooted in tradition and myth, yet determined to see their transformation through.
The vivid portraits shown here will be on view at EXPO CHICAGO this week with The Mission Projects. Find more from Solis on Instagram.
“Sa Lupa (On Ground)” (2025), acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24 inches
“Totem” (2025), acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24 inches
“Makahiya VIII” (2025), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16 inches
“Makahiya VII” (2025), acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 inches
“Alay (Offering)” (2025), acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 inches
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An Ikebana Artist and His Student Sow an Unconventional Approach to Flower Arranging
by Aurelia Butler 12 April 2025, 17:45
Kosen Ohtsubo, “Linga München” (2025), 300 Basket willow branches, candle, metal frame, plastic and metal ties, scrap metal, soil, various flowers and leaves. All photos by Maximilian Geuter, courtesy the artists and Kunstverein München, shared with permission
An Ikebana Artist and His Student Sow an Unconventional Approach to Flower Arranging
April 12, 2025
ArtNature
Grace Ebert
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“I want to explode the idea of beautiful ikebana,” says Kosen Ohtsubo, one of the foremost conceptual artists working in the Japanese tradition.
Since the 1970s, Ohtsubo has been unsettling the ancient art of flower arranging. Incorporating atypical botanicals like cabbage leaves or weaving in unconventional materials like bathtubs and scrap metal, the artist approaches making with the mindset of a jazz musician, a genre he frequently listens to while working. Improvisation and experimentation are at the core, along with an unquenchable desire for the unexpected.
Detail of Kosen Ohtsubo, “Linga München” (2025), 300 Basket willow branches, candle, metal frame, plastic and metal ties, scrap metal, soil, various flowers and leaves
An exhibition at Kunstverein München in Munich pairs Ohtsubo with Christian Kōun Alborz Oldham who, after discovering the ikebana icon’s work in a book in 2013, became his student. Titled Flower Planet—which references a sign that hangs outside Ohtsubo’s Tokorozawa home and studio—the show presents various sculptures and installations that invite viewers to consider fragility, decay, and the elusive qualities of beauty and control.
Given the ephemeral nature of the materials, photography plays an important role in most ikebana practices as it preserves an arrangement long after it has wilted. This exhibition, therefore, pairs images of earlier works with new commissions, including Ohtsubo’s standout orb titled “Linga München.” Nested in a bed of soil and leaves, the large-scale sculpture wraps willow with metal structures and positions a small candle within its center.
Similarly immersive is “Willow Rain,” which suspends thin branches from the ceiling. Subverting the way we typically encounter fields of growth, the work is one of many in the exhibition that seeds questions about our relationship to the natural world and the limits of human control.
Flower Planet is on view through April 21. Explore Ohstubo’s vast archive on Instagram.
Detail of Kosen Ohtsubo, “Linga München” (2025), 300 Basket willow branches, candle, metal frame, plastic and metal ties, scrap metal, soil, various flowers and leaves
Kosen Ohtsubo, “Willow Rain” (2025), 800 basket willow branches, metal frame
Christian Kōun Alborz Oldham, “Corruption”
Christian Kōun Alborz Oldham, “Penny Waking up from a Dream” (2025), carrot, Chinese long bean,reflecting sphere, Japanese woven bamboo basket
Detail of Christian Kōun Alborz Oldham, “Penny Waking up from a Dream” (2025), carrot, Chinese long bean, reflecting sphere, Japanese woven bamboo basket
Detail of Kosen Ohtsubo, “Linga München” (2025), 300 Basket willow branches, candle, metal frame, plastic and metal ties, scrap metal, soil, various flowers and leaves
Kosen Ohtsubo, “怪芋III / Strange Callas III” (2025), Calla lily, willow, custom-designed iron box
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Wondrous and Mischievous Misfits Populate Rhea Mack’s Bubblegum Daydreams
by Aurelia Butler 4 April 2025, 20:40
All images courtesy of Rhea Mack, shared with permission
Wondrous and Mischievous Misfits Populate Rhea Mack’s Bubblegum Daydreams
April 4, 2025
ArtIllustration
Grace Ebert
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On candy-colored paper, Rhea Mack draws a world in which all misfits are welcome. The Massachusetts-based artist lovingly renders curious characters with three heads, flowers growing from their palms, or a penchant for plump, strawberry hats.
Mack has a soft spot for these strange oddballs who develop organically, often springing from her Sunday morning sessions seemingly on their own accord. “I usually start drawing, and they just kind of develop over a few hours. I sometimes have a certain feeling or pose in mind, but mostly I am just making it up as I go,” she says.
This intuitive, accommodating attitude influences much of her process, including the decision to draw on pink paper simply “because it made sense,” she says. Mack chooses other materials similarly. “The colored pencil pinks I use in my drawings are very buttery and just feel nice to draw with,” she adds.
As if emerging from a favorite fairytale—creating a children’s book is on Mack’s mind—the drawings twist common plants and animals like dogs and daisies into surreal fantasies. Each is packed with small moments of intrigue and playful patterns like stripes and dots.
In one work, for example, a full human skeleton and dozens of single eyes float from a figure’s gaze, while a pink pup leaps overhead. Another features a quintet bound by a rainbow dress, their bulbous, beige coifs fused together like the clouds above.
Mack’s solo exhibition Massachusetts Dreaming opens next week at Kyst Gallery in Dragor, Denmark, and is on view through May 8. Find prints in her shop, and follow her work on Instagram. (via WePresent)
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plants

Latest story

Thijs Biersteker’s Digital Sculptures Translate Climate Data into Urgent Calls to Action

More stories

A New Book Cultivates a Rich Survey of 300 Magnificent Gardens

Tenderly Crocheted Sculptures by Caitlin McCormack Contend with Existential Dread

An Astronaut Finds Symbiosis with Nature in Agus Putu Suyadnya’s Uncanny Paintings

In Surreal Portraits, Rafael Silveira Tends to the Garden of Consciousness

A Unique Portfolio of Hilma af Klint’s Botanical Drawings Communes with Nature’s Spiritual Side

In Luminous Portraits, Florence Solis Invokes Feminine Power Amid Constraint

An Ikebana Artist and His Student Sow an Unconventional Approach to Flower Arranging

Wondrous and Mischievous Misfits Populate Rhea Mack’s Bubblegum Daydreams

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