Chinese Fleece Flower (People Shaped Root)

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runningdude said:
english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90782/6797864.html

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/mediafile/200910/29/P200910291402541937118979.jpg:eek:

If these this are authentic, can you really blame the Chinese (or any other culture) for developing a mythology involving trolls and fairies?
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Wow!..Truth is stranger than fiction. I never saw anything like that before.

In the link it called the root a “baby boy”…I thought it was a pregnant mother, as that is the way I see it.

Peace,

Dorothy
 
“Barbkw”

I didn’t download the special program necessary to get the video, but I must say that picture is amazing!
Any chance it is a hoax? (I haven’t researched it yet.)
 
Dorothy said:
…Any chance it is a hoax? (I haven’t researched it yet.)
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It is not a hoax, but it is not natural either. It is quite a clever manipulation.

Here’s a related article:

"Strange Root

An artist using plants as his medium reminds us that nature is its own boss

By Sharon Mizota Wednesday, Jun 28 2006

Francis Baker’s artworks are topiaries in reverse. While shrub sculptors trim bushes to resemble swans and bunnies, Baker coaxes plant roots into eerie versions of familiar forms — a Barbie, a Buddha, an outstretched hand. His is an additive rather than subtractive process: He makes a mold of an everyday object, pots a plant in it, and lets nature do its thing. It can take years (the current series took five) for the sequoia, peace lily, or china doll plant’s roots to take on the shape of the mold, but when Baker finally frees the roots from their containers, the resulting mass of gnarled and twisted tendrils preternaturally maintains its intended outline. His photographs of these root sculptures are beautiful and creepy. A collaboration between the artist’s eye and nature’s primal impulse to grow, they’re simultaneously earthy and otherworldly."…

Entire article: sfweekly.com/2006-06-28/culture/strange-root/ by
 
The fleece-flower is a perennial Chinese herb, that grows a large tuber (rather like aged peony plants tubers or yam and sweet potato tubers).
 
Interesting stuff! Could you do it with carrots? Make dinner more interesting?
 
SwizzleStick said:
It is not a hoax, but it is not natural either. It is quite a clever manipulation.

Here’s a related article:

"Strange Root

An artist using plants as his medium reminds us that nature is its own boss

By Sharon Mizota Wednesday, Jun 28 2006

Francis Baker’s artworks are topiaries in reverse. While shrub sculptors trim bushes to resemble swans and bunnies, Baker coaxes plant roots into eerie versions of familiar forms — a Barbie, a Buddha, an outstretched hand. His is an additive rather than subtractive process: He makes a mold of an everyday object, pots a plant in it, and lets nature do its thing. It can take years (the current series took five) for the sequoia, peace lily, or china doll plant’s roots to take on the shape of the mold, but when Baker finally frees the roots from their containers, the resulting mass of gnarled and twisted tendrils preternaturally maintains its intended outline. His photographs of these root sculptures are beautiful and creepy. A collaboration between the artist’s eye and nature’s primal impulse to grow, they’re simultaneously earthy and otherworldly."…

Entire article: sfweekly.com/2006-06-28/culture/strange-root/ by
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Thank you for that! I bookmarked it. Fascinating! About an hour ago I had shown my daughter the picture of the “baby boy” and the “couple”… and she said WHAT?.. (There was nothing I could find on Snopes about it.
 
Barbkw said:
In this photo the plant’s main root is placed inside of an upside down plastic or ceramic form with holes out the head of the doll form. The main root forms the doll and the feeder roots form the hair.
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SwizzleStick said:
It is not a hoax, but it is not natural either. It is quite a clever manipulation.

Here’s a related article:

"Strange Root

An artist using plants as his medium reminds us that nature is its own boss

By Sharon Mizota Wednesday, Jun 28 2006

Francis Baker’s artworks are topiaries in reverse. While shrub sculptors trim bushes to resemble swans and bunnies, Baker coaxes plant roots into eerie versions of familiar forms — a Barbie, a Buddha, an outstretched hand. His is an additive rather than subtractive process: He makes a mold of an everyday object, pots a plant in it, and lets nature do its thing. It can take years (the current series took five) for the sequoia, peace lily, or china doll plant’s roots to take on the shape of the mold, but when Baker finally frees the roots from their containers, the resulting mass of gnarled and twisted tendrils preternaturally maintains its intended outline. His photographs of these root sculptures are beautiful and creepy. A collaboration between the artist’s eye and nature’s primal impulse to grow, they’re simultaneously earthy and otherworldly."…

Entire article: sfweekly.com/2006-06-28/culture/strange-root/ by
Click to expand...
Thank you! This was way too creepy, and I had a sneaking suspicion that it too good to be true, but had no explanation for it (it certainly doesn’t look carved!).

But still, the article I originally got it from (cracked.com - yeah, reliable lol) thought it was authentic, and compared it to the poor goat with a “human”-like face born a couple years ago.

Ah, what an odd planet we live on 🙂
 
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