Artist: Elise Beckman
Materials: Lucky bamboo plant, pine wood, acrylic, plastic glue, fabric, metal hinges.
The name of this plant, the ‘Lucky Bamboo’, is a hoax concocted by the consumeristic Western world. In truth, the plant is neither ‘lucky’ as related to the practice of Feng Shui nor is it bamboo at all. It is actually a part of the lily family, and native to the rain forests of Africa, not Asia.
For this plant I have built a new housing to reveal its true identity through several stages of transformation. It begins as a transportable wooden box, painted black and worn as if for a gypsy to travel her fortune-telling. The box opens to a dramatic display where a black painted surface and purple fabrics behind surround the plant with a sense of mysticism and the divine. This display seems befitting for a crystal ball, but instead the plant stands alone as its own free entity. The clear drawer below it displays its proud statement: “Henceforth I am my own good fortune”.
With this shift of expectation, a rediscovery of the plant’s true identity may be experienced as a new reverence for its pure life force. The mobility of the plant allows me as its keeper to bring it with me wherever I go, collecting small wonders of nature in its drawer, and offering the opportunity to forge an ongoing relationship with this plant that is based on a respect for the luck it holds simply for what it is— a living being.
