Visual Strolls
seasonal residency
Visual Strolls is a residency space for artists who share an affinity for landscapes and wilderness, inner and outer.
Foresta is changing with every season as the real forest does. In cyclical circularity it celebrates changing seasons of the natural world and of our lives. As snow melts away, as days grow longer, as leaves change colour, as they fly with the wind, as stillness settles in, as warmth returns, as birds cross continents, as apples ripen — at the turn of seasonal moments we invite different artists to bring a new time of the year to Foresta by making a seasonal portrait of time, that later becomes part of the permanent Museum of Seasons.
Summer Artist in Residence 2024
Yoshiko Hada
Yoshiko is an illustrator based in Tokyo, fascinated by all living creatures.
Summer Portrait 2024
“Recent research has revealed that plants communicate in many different ways.
For example, when a leaf is being eaten by an insect, the leaf sends a signal to other leaves saying, ``I’ve been eaten a leaf!’’ and the other leaves that catch this signal begin to create a defense system.
Alternatively, they emit a substance that can be detected by natural enemy insects that feed on the insect, calling for help.
It is said that when a flower hears the sound of bees’ wings, it produces more nectar.
Plants communicate in many ways by emitting sounds at frequencies that humans cannot hear and substances that we cannot see.
Maybe there will be a conversation like this.
“The weather is nice today and I feel good.”
”Look at my flowers! Isn’t it amazing!”
”It looks like it’s going to rain tomorrow. I’m happy.’’
It’s fun to imagine that such conversations might even be happening.
If humans could hear (feel) the conversations of plants, we might be able to love plants and forests even more than we do now. And I imagine the forest to be a vivid and lively place filled with lots of conversation between plants, insects, and animals.”
About Visual Strolls
Visual Strolls is not only an online gallery, an exhibition room, a portrait into the work of the invited artist. It is also a part of our long-term research, understanding arts and creativity as forces that change human states of attention in manifold ways, as forms of cognition and perception, divergent perspectives and poetry of vision, access to intuition and imagination, and empowerment for conscious creation of culture. You can read more about Art into Life research here.
Cover image: Yoshiko Hada