This Humid House

For Vesak Day, we return to the lotus. 🪷

In 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘓𝘰𝘵𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘴 (1960), Zhang Daqian (张大千) enlarges the flower to monumental scale. Spanning six panels and more than eight metres in length, the work creates a world of its own.

The lotus was a lifelong subject for Zhang, who cultivated the plant himself and returned to it repeatedly in his paintings. Here, the lotus becomes architecture. Leaves and flowers sweep across the composition with a tectonic presence.

A flower long intertwined with Buddhist thought, rendered at a scale that asks to be encountered rather than simply observed.

Wishing a peaceful Vesak Day to all who celebrate.

Images by Wang Zhiyi, courtesy of Musée Cernuschi. Video via Sotheby’s.

For S&W, enchantment via a soft invasion of ivy and light at the iconic CHIJMES—a green grove moulded into the nave of the church, with vows exchanged beneath a chandelier of orchids.

Dreamt up together with , architect of dreams 💭

Just before the procession: a flurry of marrow and pistachio, folded into precious posies of orchids, amaranth and sarracenia.

With for S&W at CHIJMES

A year ago this week, we were deep in the build at Chelsea, working alongside neighbours we admired enormously— , and among them—each booth slowly becoming its own strange universe over the course of the week.

Tabula Rosa was our contribution to that conversation. A tropical landscape that sat somewhere between seduction and unease.

What feels especially striking looking back is how differently everyone approached the language of flowers, and how much space there still was for those differences to coexist side by side.

As this year’s show comes to a close today, we wanted to share a few works we especially enjoyed following from afar—Wagner and Frida’s continued openness and experimentation, ’s wonderfully eccentric installation at Museum of Curiosities, and the many flower friends whose generosity, curiosity and distinct ways of seeing continue to make this world feel expansive and alive.

Part of what continues to make Chelsea interesting to us is the way it can still accommodate very different ideas about what flowers are for, and what they might be capable of expressing.

Images courtesy of

Yellow moths to a flame—with for at .world 💛

At 𝚂𝙾𝙼𝙼𝙰 for 𝚂𝙾𝙻𝚃𝙴𝚁𝚁𝙰

𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘴𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘳, 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘶𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘥

kelp mid-dry
an architectural membrane

corn standing as evidence

a section through earth
a root drawing

microbes run the colour story
unseen
in charge

𝗙𝗔𝗡𝗧𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗖 𝗕𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗦 from last summer’s workshop in Lijiang.

Golden lotus banana flowers—native to Yunnan—set onto bamboo stools, lifted on improvised crutch feet. Long-necked, slightly off balance. Crouching, teetering, gathering among troughs of local kangaroo paw and tea leaves. A loose herd spread across the courtyard—watchful, yellow.

Join us for REINVENTION, our next adventure with this June in Shanghai—Link in bio!

📸

Come flower with us this June in Shanghai!

We’re returning to China this summer with our long-time partner —after gathering in the gardens of Hangzhou and the courtyards of Lijiang—and with it, a new line of inquiry.

REINVENTION 重塑

Reinvention becomes necessary when beauty alone no longer compels.

This two-day workshop is about reinventing practice—rethinking what flowers can do, and how we make.

Through a series of individual, paired and group exercises, we’ll work with plants and flowers to gently question our habits, shift perspective, and open up new possibilities.

For anyone feeling a little restless in their work, or curious about what else might be possible.

17–18 June 2026
Shanghai

Early bird and alumni offers end 15 May—more details via link in bio!

V&J’s 𝒅𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒚 aisle 💨