Christophe Guinet aka Monsieur Plant was born in Paris and grew up between town and country, always keeping in touch with nature. As a teenager, he developed a passion for plants, especially the cultivation of orchids: attracted by their exacting needs and rewarded by the beauty and delicacy of their flowers. Later tastes evolve to urban cultures: skate, art and especially street art, fashion. Eager to get more involved in creation, he gathered a team of creative talents to set up the «SEIZE» project. Graphic design, art, marketing & communication were now part of his daily life.
His craft allowed him to realise what kind of world we are living in: worried by industrialisation, manipulation and how human thought was changing,he becomes more careful when collecting raw natural materials. Contemplative and passionate aesthete of the plant world, he uses his findings related to places and seasons, to create works of art with care and a concentration close to the meditative state. The artistic process is thus an integral part of the final work of art.As ephemeral and fragile as a bouquet of flowers, Christophe’s compositions show us the beauty of nature through everyday and cult objects. His care to minimise the harmful impact on the environment is in contrast to the escalation of consumerism and the race to keep producing objects which are ever newer, more technical, more ‘hype’ Through his compositions, Christophe also expresses the idea that plants do not think ;they live from day to day, in a haphazard way. It is in this spirit of the moment that he creates, with meticulous detail and patience, his unique plant compositions.
His extensive travels have allowed him to develop his ability to project the nature on to different types of media: via collage, photography, graphic design, illustration or sculpture. His creations represent what he «loves» as well as what he «hates». There is in his works of art both love forobjects related to urban culture and a dichotomy with the ethical logic in which it exists: in the end, nature will always triumph over man. Because of its strength and its beauty. His reflection revolves around love, life, death, and the ambiguity of the cycle of life in a society where (the subject of) death has become extremely taboo. It is interesting to see a work wither, die, follow the seasons. This reminds us of our own cycle: a flower blooms and dies then the cycle starts again the following year. We too follow certain cycles and states: childhood, adolescence, adulthood, old age and death. This is inevitable and every stage of life should be celebrated and glorified. His latest project ‘Just Grow It!’ shows his real desire to create unlikely and poetic bridges between cult marketing products, emblematic of our time, and extremely detailed plant compositions in the style of Arcimboldo. Thus the artist returns capitalist symbols and trends to nature through art and as one living among the living.
One can also read a subtle denunciation of our thoughts polluted by overconsumption and the ultra-liberal media hype in which we are soaked. The return to nature is effected by a work of craftsmanship, but, like us will return to dust. The final compositions are both poetic and disconcerting, since essentially they seem to contain opposing ideas.
‘Go back to the source, man is nourished spiritually and artistically by nature’ seems to be the mantra of Christophe Guinet, which reminds us by its base-line. Think Nature!
© Monsieur Plant.
