What Flowers Know

Finding Eternity in Flora

I bought a T-shirt that says The Gorgeous Nothings. It says a lot about the essence of life. Glimmers. Small moments of happiness. Beauty. Art.   

It’s a souvenir from a castle gift shop. I never buy anything. Not souvenirs, not decorative items, not books. Not in the last three years. I’ve been entirely nomadic and seeing art, braving adventures, making friends, and taking photos have been my takeaways. But the T-shirt was, well, gorgeous. And it’s practically nothing–one more T-shirt will fit in my bag, but then I’m short on clothes anyway. 

Memories, on the other hand, I have in abundance. And we do try to keep fresh flowers in our temporary homes these past three years. Flowers make a place feel loved. They add color and personality to our apartments as we travel all over the world. They are temporary, as are we. Hopefully my memories will be as long, as the flowers are brief.

Flowers. Gorgeous. Nothing. 

The Gorgeous Nothings is the title of an exhibition now showing at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, England. The show’s title is from an Emily Dickenson poem where she referenced her habit of writing lines of poems on scraps of paper. These transient lines might evolve to something else, or perhaps they’ll just remain a moment of joy. The lines will be gathered, perhaps, like flowers. 

It’s the second art exhibition on flowers I saw in a week. The other was Flowers, now showing at Chiostro del Bramante in Rome, Italy. Both were spectacular, for different reasons. 

As flowers are mysterious, meaningful, beautiful, and temporary, they are also a wonderful theme for springtime art exhibitions. And the Chatsworth House has done this with an emphasis on the similarities between flowers and humanity. The natural world, the ephemeral moments, the shared biology, the lifecycle, and the responsiveness to our surroundings are intersections we share. Meanwhile, the exhibition at Chiostro del Bramante is a global collaboration that looks at universal symbols of flowers and what that means to our life and society. 

Hunters and gatherers, beauty and horror, permanence and the ephemeral, sexuality and the senses, mythology and magic are some of the themes encountered on the visitor route. 

–Chatsworth House

Dorothea Tanning does not give us the faithful reproduction of a flower that might be expected of a still life. In a dreamlike scene, a rose becomes a creature peering at us from behind the table. The flower's traditional associations with purity and beauty are subverted. Delicate petals morph into metallic folds exposing an eerie otherworldly dimension to an everyday domestic setting. - Some Roses and Their Phantoms - Dorothea Tanning, 1952 - Oil on canvas - Tate: Presented by the Tate Collectors Form 2003 - Photographed at Chatsworth House

The Creation of Flowers - George Graham, 1935-1938 - Oil on canvas - Courtesy of Hastings Museum & Art Gallery - Photographed at Chatsworth House

Hat - Philip Treacy, 2011 - Hand-painted silk, wire - Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum - Photographed at Chatsworth House

‘Flowers are much more than simple decorative elements,’ explains Natalia de Marco, Artistic Director of the Chiostro del Bramante. ‘They act as universal symbols, epitomising every aspect of life: from resilience to spirituality, from love to conflict, from science to ecology.’ This sensory adventure comes to life in an exhibition that combines works from the past and the present, offering the public an unprecedented interpretation of the role flowers have played in the evolution of our history and society.

–Chiostro del Bramante

Calyx - Rebecca Louise Law, 2025 - Photographed at Chiostro del Bramante

The Pilgrim in the Garden or The Heart of the Rose - EDWARD BURNE-JONES, WILLIAM MORRIS - Progettato ante / Drafted before 1896Esecuzione / Executed in 1901Filati di lana, seta e cotone / Wool, silk, cotton yarn - Courtesy Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe - Photographed at Chiostro del Bramante

Portrait of a Florentine Nobleman III - Kehinde Wiley, 2019 - Oil on canvas - Courtesy of the artist and Stephan Friedman Gallery, London - Photographed at Chiostro del Bramante