Jane Withers curated an installation of floral design called Double Dutch – Appetites and Emotions in London earlier this month.

Commissioned by the Flower Council of Holland, the show featured a section called Appetites designed by Lisa White with Graham Hollick and incorporating vintage and contemporary objects.

Emotions consisted of five bouquets created by Dutch designers Niels van Eijk and Miriam van der Lubbe, called sympathy, love, happiness, anger, and jealousy (above).

Above: anger.

The following is from The Flower Council of Holland:

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Double Dutch – Appetites and Emotions

15th – 19th September

An unusual and highly sensual contribution to the 2008 London Design Festival has been created by The Flower Council of Holland. Double Dutch is an installation of floral design which shows how flowers can evoke emotions and conjure desire. Above: love.

Double Dutch, a ‘guerrilla installation’, curated by Jane Withers, has been created specially for the London Design Festival and designed by two design partnerships with strong links to the Netherlands: Lisa White and Graham Hollick and Miriam van der Lubbe and Niels van Eijk. The show merges decoration with desire in a botanical banquet which tempts the eye and captivates the mind. Above: happiness

Flowers have an almost visceral effect on humans. Whilst the colours and images of flowers have been used for centuries in designs which please and decorate there is also a provocative side to blooms and to the tantalising shapes, colours and textures of petals and leaves. Above: sympathy

In form, colour, texture and print, floral images have wound their way into fashion and design season after season, combining nature and culture in a visual and sensory feast. However, there is also secret meaning in flowers. When arranged in a certain way they become symbolic of emotion or of mysterious, hidden intent.

Appetites and Emotions

Appetites – a floral feast, created by Lisa White with Graham Hollick - offers a tempting tableau, a groaning board of seductive blooms, beckoning orchids, blushing roses, luscious carnations and voracious carnivorous plants. The visual ‘orgy’ will incorporate contemporary and vintage design elements to create a hybrid of nature and culture.

Bouquets of Emotions - displays five different bouquets created by Dutch designers Niels van Eijk and Miriam van der Lubbe representing different emotions: sympathy, love, happiness, anger, and jealousy. With the creation of ‘Bouquets of Emotions’ – flowers are used to evoke the passion and power of these emotions through expressive, abstract and striking floral art. For example, Anger is conveyed through snipped rose stems and withered branches. Happiness, by contrast, uses distinct, brightly coloured flowers to create a field of colour. The designers have used contrast and texture, hot and cool colours, soft or spiky, angular or curling plants and flowers to convey emotional intensity.