Flowers / Together pt 2

Flowers / Together pt 2 is the eagerly awaited second chapter to Metz+Racine’s earlier self-published monograph of the same title. Through a series of new collaborations with designers, art directors and stylists, the artist-duo turn their kaleidoscopic lens once again towards the enduring subject of flowers.

Whereas for pt 1, Metz+Racine took to the studio with their closest, long- standing collaborators, for Flowers / Together pt 2, their premise was the promise of the unknown. Characteristic of an award-winning artistic practice that has upheld their international reputation for over two decades, Metz+Racine’s presentation is a lesson in colour, light and form.

Unfolding as a series of one-day shoots over the course of almost three years, the project was deliberately uncoupled from any set processes or outcomes, offering a rare and generous open-brief to each designer. From set designers to ceramicists, stylists to art buyers, the 14 chosen collaborators represent some of London’s most prescient creative talents, carefully curated by Metz+Racine across the book’s 64 pages.

Roving from the flamboyant to the futuristic, the results are as achingly time- less as they are searingly contemporary: from Yasmina Kurunis’s ebullient bal- loon blooms, to Camilla Wordie’s graceful, suspended stems and Jacki Castelli’s floating flowerheads, photographed through a giant water tank. Alexandra Leavey led a tranquil day in the studio absorbed in a series of drawings, whilst Jess Morgan’s flowers made from recycled perspex were photographed one memorably cold morning on the Hackney marshes.

An ode to image-making unbounded by commercial expectation, Metz+Racine’s undertaking is a powerful souvenir of creative partnership, and of present moment. From concept to printed page, each image surfaces as a communion between inspiration and energy: a chorus of moods, voices, even obsessions. At times breezy or bewildering, at others pensive and plaintive, Flowers / Together pt 2 is also a spiriting reminder of the value of reaching beyond one’s own circle, into uncharted territory.

In collaboration with:

Daryl McGregor
Louis Gibson
Jacki Castelli
Jess Morgan
Yasmina Kurunis
Alexandra Leavey
Wagner & Noe
Scarlet Winter
Nat Turnbull
Sarah Parker
Benjamin Kempton
Holly Hay
Camilla Wordie
Imogen Frost