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Liquid nitrogen makes things very, very cold. So cold that any water in them, anywhere, gets instantly zapped into ice. So what if you were to take something fragile and beautiful, that is composed almost entirely of water, bathe the whole thing in liquid nitrogen, and then gently shatter the ice within?
Something like a flower, say.
A thought along these lines must have occurred at some point to flower photographer Jon Shireman, although quite where such an idea would come from, were not sure. Perhaps it is the hallmark of an artistic mind that it can stare at a perfectly innocent flower and think: what that needs is ice.
The other thing were a little baffled about here in the Clare Florist mansion (n.b. Clare Florist does not have a mansion), is BangStyle.coms assertion that If you watch Bravos chef competition show Top Chef, you know how clutch liquid nitrogen is in the kitchen. What kind of an adjective is clutch? Is this one of those trendy people words for being trendy? Oh, I dont know.
On with the pictures. These photos show Shiremans science-meets-art project to its best effect. While perhaps lacking the magisterial quality of Robert Bueltemans electrified blooms, theres a very similar thought lurking at the heart of this project; a questioning of the organic beauty of the flower through a mechanical, painstakingly deliberate deconstruction. The shards of petal which result are glasslike, noticeably artificial. Effectively, its science fiction, where the shape itself is the story.
Pretty clutch, huh?
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