The airborne sounds depicted in the body of work “Florum Somnia” are the ultrasonic pops and crackles that stressed or dehydrated plants make to communicate their distress. “Florum Somnia” — which translates to “plants dreaming” — makes one wonder what else we have been missing as we plod along our well-worn paths, oblivious to the flowers releasing nectar when they “hear” the sound of a hovering bee or the traumatized wail of an anemone yearning for water. “Florum Somnia” is an abstract, imaginative rendering of a scientific reality.
“What does all this imply? Are plants sentient? I don’t know, but it seems we’ve sometimes set the bar of sentience much lower for other life forms. Plants interact with our shared environment in highly complex ways, but with a completely different physiology than humans have… What if we learned that plants also dream? Would that be enough to change the calculus? Florum Somnia!”
Using the innovative material of volcanic stone sourced from a 300 million-year-old deposit in the American Southwest, Landström’s material speaks to his metaphysical interests and fascination with ancient civilizations.