Last Flowers

The series of works “Last Flowers” deals with transience, transformation, material cycles and conservation. Last bouquets of flowers from the palliative care centre of the city hospital Waid were collected, dipped layer by layer in wax and the individual stages of the transformation process were recorded on film. The flower arrangements change their shape and transform into bodily resembling wax objects. Flowers are often presented as gestures at important events, they can be last greetings and refer to the transience of all living things. Wax combines motivic complexes of transience, preservation and magical-religious use, and through its corporeal qualities it is also a substitute for the body.

The series of works was created in the context of the SNSF research project “Sterbesettings – Eine interdisziplinäre Perspektive 2020-2023”, in which Eva Wandeler is Artist in Residence. She complements the four perspectives of language, design, religion and care with a free artistic approach that focuses on visual worlds of dying.

The SNF research project is a cooperation between the Bern University of Applied Sciences (Bern University of the Arts and Dept. of Health) and the Zurich University of the Arts. The practical partner is the Centre for Palliative Care, Stadtspital Waid and Triemli (www.sterbesettings.ch).

Thanks to: Noëmi Lehmann, Ward Manager Centre for Palliative Care, Stadtspital Waid and her team for collecting the flowers and the research team for their inputs and many conversations.

And special thanks to the Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation for the additional support of Eva Wandeler’s Artist in Residence project.