Cynthia Fan and Hayden Malan
London | Cape Town | Amsterdam
Pear_ed is a collaborative project from Cynthia Fan and Hayden Malan. Their shared enquiry into botany, biology and art centres on the guiding question:
"What do plants really want?" At once resisting and quoting traditions of flower arranging, the pair's botanical compositions become a medium for spending (more) time with organic matter and listening to the non-human sentient.
The plants, shifting and changing over the course of the project, insist their autonomy - some wilt, others send out aerial roots, growth and decay persist. Cynthia Fan is a florist and PhD graduate from The University of Edinburgh's Institute of Molecular Plant Sciences.
Hayden Malan is a landscape architect and artist. Together, they share a preoccupation with the sculptural potential of plants as both natural organisms and modular structures.
Currently, the focus is on the identification of unusual plants found between Cape Town and Edinburgh, and provides GPS coordinates to each unique location.
The plants share common features and are effectively in conversation with one another. We provide scientific, cultural and indigenous knowledge that we have gathered about each plant. These are presented through a parallel Instagram page that tracks the conversation.
Through this conversation and the sharing of plant knowledge we are able to provide educational interest as well as draw attention to the importance of plant biodiversity.
Email: paired.peared@gmail.com
Instagram: @pear__ed
Design by Andrea Albiac