Flower power by way of storytelling via plants.

While often known more for their installations and collaborations in retail, botanical design studio This Humid House presented their first ever public event on Wednesday, with a botanical installation created live with renowned florist and educator Wagner Kreusch. Held at the Arts House Chamber, Soft Power is described as ‘part performance, part demonstration, and part conversation’, while a live score by Singapore-based electronic music producer and sound artist Dominic Khoo, aka OFTRT, is played.

The Chamber is a particularly significant venue for the performance, with its history of being a former space for Members of Parliament to debate, one that speaks of a colonial history linked with ideas of hard power and authority, from the Supreme Court to becoming Parliament House, until it finally let go all this and became a house for the ‘soft power’ of the arts in 2004.

In the centre of the Chamber, we see a table with a red cloth laid over it, reminiscent of an offering table, perhaps marking a ritual about to begin, paying homage to the space’s history. At the head of the table, leading the work, are The Humid House founder John Lim, and London-based florist Wagner Kreusch. As the doors open, it links up to the head of the table to the end, forming a chain of people passing down items to one another, and emphasising the art of collaboration as the performance begins.

The act of crafting an installation is not merely arrangement but a deliberate, artistic process; one might think it a delicate process, but starting with the pineapples, they instead seem to almost engage in an act of skewering them. Slipped onto the “swords” of a kenzan, from the Japanese ikebana tradition, it seems that we are no longer seeing them as sacred fruit as they might have been in the past, now subverting their symbolism as we consider them in a new light.

While it may be hard to imagine where it all leads to, particularly as the pace picks up, the violence eventually subsides, as they get to work placing the plants nicely, arranging them at all the right places for maximum aesthetic appeal, considering juxtaposition and angles. Bigger papaya trees are hauled in, and meticulously drilled into place, almost like ensuring a strong foundation by securing its roots and base, while even more greenery is brought it to further enliven the installation.

Dominic Khoo’s soundscape is soothing, as if we’re housed in a temple focused on creation, ready to birth things into life. Meditative and therapeutic, this is accompanied by hints of the sounds of nature, and the occasional gong, lulling us into a reverie, while we watch the sugarcanes brought into the space, each one carefully placed, and once again paying respect to their significance of position.

To that end, this is not merely a demonstration, but a theatrical act, performative and emotional, where every plant is chosen for their meaning, where we view oil palm fruits and tiger orchids, each with their own history, nestled within the installation, seemingly a natural landscape yet riveted and arranged to forge purposeful intent, a lush tropical makeshift garden.

All this feels like art in motion, and for This Humid House and Wagner Kreusch, plants become their paintbrush, as they sculpt these plants int living sculpture, breathing life into them as they engage in the act of creation, using ‘soft power’ to demand to be looked at, that these plants too have something to say in the Arts House Chamber, and that we will listen to them, as we take it all in. If anything, it feels like a representation of the evolution of the Arts House itself, going from place of political power to what is now ‘soft power’, where the arts use the power of beauty and storytelling to convince and convey meaning and make change.

For This Humid House, this marks an evolution and a breakthrough when it comes to their artistry, for their work to be platformed in such a public space and showcased in all its glory. In collaborating with Wagner Kreusch, Soft Power feels like an elevation and birth of a new level to conveying their intent via plants, a deliberate force of nature that also acts as a celebration of the arts and all the possibilities it holds when it comes to storytelling. While still niche, perhaps such an event opens audience members up to the possibilities of plants being an alternative medium of presentation, and better appreciate the language of flowers.

Soft Power was presented on 6th March 2024 at the Arts House Chamber. More information available here