Tulip Mania 2

Kumi Hiroi

We are all attracted by the beauty of flowers, although it remains to be seen if their beauty and sentimental value justify the environmental issues they cause, or broader issues brought by the global economic system.

For Tulip Mania 2, Kumi Hiroi focuses on seasonal labour in the tulip industry, creating an installation consisting of video works and glass sculptures. She will present a multiple screen video installation where she intertwines the labour on flower growers with famous speech by global economist Dr. Milton Friedman inspired from a text by Dr. Leonard E. Read. In his speech, he explained global economics using the production of a pencil, a simple daily object around us. For Hiroi, flowers are part of everyday life in the Netherlands. The flower glass sculptures are combined with pencils which she carves from the wood branch sourced from the Amstelpark. Combining fieldwork and her imagination, she creates works that carefully depict the complex layers of her research subjects and critique the underlying structures.

This summer, Hiroi worked as a live-in worker on organic bulb farms in the Netherlands, along with seasonal workers from Poland, conducting field research to learn about their work and working conditions.
Neoliberalism and market fundamentalism are deeply rooted in our lives, even in the field of organic bulb cultivation. Labour is supported by seasonal workers from Eastern Europe, mainly from Poland, and the demand for expensive organic bulbs is only 0.22% of the bulb market. Together with this fact, it suggests that organic bulb cultivation is not established solely on the basis of human cooperation and trade, but in a human-ecological relationship.

Hiroi will begin her residency in the Park Studio on 8 September, after which her work will be on view from 22 September through 13 October. Please join us for the opening on Sunday 22 September from 2pm to 3:30pm.