Faux Flora
On view October 9, 2026 – September 12, 2027
Third Floor, West Galleries
Faux Flora imagines new flowering plant species through artwork blending scent, sound, and visuals. Each flower in this multisensory exhibition stirs emotions and invites distinct experiences, combining well-known Icelandic motifs and fragrances into an inventive botanical landscape.
Forms of life intertwine in this exhibition created by Iceland-based Fischersund Art Collective, progressing through five chapters referencing germination, growth, flowering, seed formation,
and dispersal. Each chapter mirrors the stages of human life: birth, childhood, adolescence,
adulthood, and death.
Visitors will experience these imagined flowers through sight, scent, and sound. Fischersund identifies each plant in the exhibition, drawing on botanical treatises spanning centuries, and presents it alongside contemporary portrayals of flowers in video art and hand-painted photography. These visuals are paired with perfume, a primary artistic medium for the Fischersund Art Collective, which provides important olfactory information for plant identification. A soundscape composed for the exhibition marks the culmination of the sequential, time-bound journey within Faux Flora.
“Faux Flora illustrates the five life cycles of a plant, with a twist —
the plants are born from human memories and experiences
rather than seed and earth.”
-Rachel Gallaher, Seattle Magazine
All images by Jim Bennett/Photo Bakery for the National Nordic Museum.
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