Mechanical Orchid Parts Catalogue

Justin Amrhein, artist

born 1979

Mechanical Orchid Parts Catalogue, 2015

Where object was made: United States

Material/technique: screen print; sewn binding

Dimensions:
Object Height/Width/Depth (Height x Width x Depth): closed 20.2 x 15.9 x 0.8 cm
Object Height/Width/Depth (Height x Width x Depth): 7 15/16 x 6 1/4 x 0 5/16 in
Object Height/Width/Depth (Height x Width x Depth): open 20.2 x 32.4 x 0.8 cm
Object Height/Width/Depth (Height x Width x Depth): 7 15/16 x 12 3/4 x 0 5/16 in

Credit line: Anonymous gift

Accession number: 2017.0056

Not on display

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Working with both technical engineering and architectural rendering and lettering, Amrhein’s prints propose a hybrid botanical-mechanical achievement that combines artificial photosynthesis and electro-hydraulic methods of growth, seed, and fragrance dispersal. An accompanying artist’s book takes the form of a “parts catalogue” for the 74 parts of the mechanical orchids. Mechanical Orchid Triptych was one of Amrhein’s first “botanicals” and includes three species of orchid, each with the same subsoil engineering and with different flowering attachments: Cypripedium acaule, Vanda coerulea, and Psychopsis papilio.

These works are related to Amrhein’s current series of large-scale drawings of “replacement trees,” which would provide for photosynthesis and the visual presence of trees in a future plantless world.