Floating Petals, Black Water

Floating Petals, Black Water, 2010.
Edition 1/8.
Archival pigments prints mounted on dibond.
50 7/8″ x 86 1/4″.
Courtesy of the artist and CRG Gallery, NY.

At first, it looks like star-dense sky. In fact, it’s hundreds of cherry blossom petals suspended on water at a Japanese kamikaze memorial. In World War II, the metaphor of the youthful cherry blossoms falling after such a short time was used to recruit kamikaze pilots. By magnificent accident, The petals seen here cluster and disperse on the surface and deceive us into seeing some dimension, some depth in the sable pond. From March to May, cherry blossoms, “sakura,” bloom across Japan, and for centuries, people have gathered to view their pale pink buds. But after two weeks, the petals fall where they may, and as soon as that happens, Gersht says, “I’m trying to capture something that is already gone.”

–Caleb Bissinger ’13
Gund Gallery Associate