Brown leaves, brittle stems, barren ground – a withered house plant, neglected, forgotten, abandoned? This specimen has more to contend with than a lack of water: the pot has been filled completely with concrete so that the plant’s roots and hydroponic granules form a solid gray mass. Here, as in many of his works, Reinecke employs elements taken from our everyday world and takes them to their very limits.
In the five unique works created for his series xero he overturns the common practice of beautifying our surroundings with greenery – an endeavor which, despite the most advanced plant care and breeding methods, always seems doomed to fail. This discrepancy is reflected in Reinecke’s concreted plants, which provoke a sense of unease while revealing new qualities as the aesthetics of vitality are confronted with that of morbidity and stubborn resistance.