Did you know that flowers can dance ballet? Neither did we until we encountered the works of Dutch artist Anne ten Donkelaar.
This Utrecht School of the Art graduate recently presented an intriguing new series of works titled “Underwater Ballet”. In the series, ten Donkelaar submerges flowers in cold water in a carefully choreographed way. Each flower is tied to a metal piece to ensure it stays underwater.
The attempts to emerge on the surface and the inability to do causes the flowers to wave and creates a “silent image of a spirited dance”, as the artist puts it on her website.
The flowers don’t get trapped underwater for long, which is why ten Donkelaar makes sure to capture their dance on camera. Sometimes she even offers them as prints to those who appreciate her work.
Besides “Underwater Ballet”, ten Donkelaar also works with found flowers, twigs, and broken butterflies to create art pieces and installations. She picks up these objects during her long walks in nature and takes them to her studio. She then takes her time to find the ideas and show them in their full beauty.
“My finds inspire me. While looking at them, I can invent my own stories about their existence and their lives,” she reveals.
Check out more of her works below.
