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The Apocalypse of the Landscape

On Hiatus, by Flora Feizbakhsh

Helia Darabi

“Hiatus” is the second series in which Flora Feizbakhsh takes on the subject-matter of overgrowing plants which fill the
entire picture plane. The pervasive presence of the plants occurred following a personal profound experience, but has
evolved in a significant way during at least ten years in which the artist has been focused on the theme.
In the beginning the plants were fresh and lush, growing under feminine care. The colorful canvases pictured various
seasons, and the shape and the arrangement of the leaves evoked recognizable trees such as the mad willow, maple, or
elm. However, through the persistent and obsessive continuation of the theme, the plants grew out of control and the
atmosphere and the qualities of the perspective gradually deteriorated.
As the series progresses, the plants develop identical features and it becomes difficult to recognize their species. The
scene grows darker, cast in a dim, eerie light. There are no seasons; and unlike the previous series, the change of
the plants’ colours is not seasonal. The whitening of the leaves is due to the degradation of the chlorophyll. The soil
goes grey and impenetrable, and the perspective looks threatening. There are no roads; or they are hidden behind the
overgrowth of the weeds. The horizon line is not in the frame, or if it is, nothing is visible beyond it. The is no sky, and
where we think it is, the sky is still sealed and obscure: is it the sky or only the continuation of the scorched earth?
The signs of the human existence are scarce: lost pathways under the weeds or impenetrable grey walls in the distance;
or some ruins covered by the irregular patterns made by the advance of the plants. This is an abandoned land fell into
oblivion, a wilderness out of the realm of the civilization, or succeeding it.
The wilderness is generally granted a feminine quality; as the personification of nature has typically been feminine:
the «mother earth» who passively yields her body to agriculture, technology, and the building of civilization. This
potentially rebellious woman must eventually be constructed and controlled through male order and rationalism in order
to evolve from «wilderness» into «landscape». Here, in Flora’s paintings, the nature has revolted against the system
and order of the civilization. Maybe the anonymous harm inflicted has been so devastating that the land has lost the
capability of submitting to these rules. The unbridled growth of the plants is a deep rebellion against human domination;
and a means of dismissing or resolving its signs.
Here the nature reveals its aspect of otherness: It is shadowy, impenetrable, distant and direful. Contrary to the common
practice of landscape painting, these sceneries do not invite us to step into them. There is no pathway to draw us in, or
no clear sky to meet our eyes. There are no clues of human or animal life. The eye-catching and imaginative scenery -our
conventional expectations of a landscape - is turned into depression, darkness, and decay.
A break with the main properties of the genre of landscape painting -such as system, order, harmony, and the picturesque-
might have been the artist’s main preoccupation. The deliberate subversion of the pictorial conventions acts as a challenge
to the ideological significations. A Landscape, by definition, is «a composition of man-made or man-modified spaces
to serve as infrastructure or background for our collective existence.» 1 «Landscape painting» is a representation of a
scene with a central theme of nature, comprising geological features such as plains, valleys, rivers, forests and beaches
and/or ecosystems such as plants, animals and birds, as well as natural phenomena (such as rain and snow or the change
of seasons). In the present series, however, from all the various manifestations of landscape painting, there is nothing left
but the uncontrolled growth of plants of the same shape. The conventional composition is dissolved and the repetitive
outlook continues from end to end.
The Picturesque, meaning pleasant, spectacular, and in other words, «beautiful», is a dominant concept in the genre of
landscape painting. It suggests that we can look at nature as if we are looking at a painting or an artistic image. Thus,
in the aesthetic appreciation of nature, we generally consider it to have positive features, i.e. nature (especially in its
pristine condition) has no negative aesthetic qualities whatsoever. Flora›s perspectives, however, do not conform to the
“picturesque” ideas; they are ugly, unnatural, futile and abortive in total contrast to the idea of the «landscape”. They
are chaotic «anti-landscapes”: absurd, dreadful perspectives under demise, which are incapable of accommodating life,
except in its most resistant and mutated forms.
Why did this post-human anti-landscape happen? We don’t know, but a human source is suggested. The global
environmental crisis and ecological issues make reasonable deductions, but the artist rejects these motivations. In fact,
these scenes might be best read as social metaphors: the account of resistance and struggle in a dystopian condition
where the atmosphere increasingly densifies and the soil turns sterile. No beam of hope penetrates this cruel depiction of
struggle. The resilient plants who have gone through the adaptation procedure at the cost of much of their vital qualities
have both psychological functions for the artist and vast metaphorical significance. The fact that the scenes are painted
entirely by heart and with no reference to the open air or photographs, emphasizes their metaphorical nature.
After the disappearance of humans, who is left to picture this perspective? The post-human anti-landscape is cast under
a heavy silence. The painter narrates the situation from above. Admittedly, Flora Faizbakhsh, through her long pursuit of
silence and intensive labour, has not taken the path of popularity. Contrarily, an inner, commanding force has constantly
drawn her towards the dystopian images of struggle and deterioration: a different perception of landscape painting, an
alternate scenery loaded with symbolic meanings, extended from side to side, open to interpretation.

John Brinckerhoff Jackson, Discovering the Vernacular Landscape, Yale University Press. 1984.