The lengthy title of this work by the painter and filmmaker Rosalind Nashashibi is derived from an ancient Chinese courtly game, in which players write a series of poems that engage with the life cycle and human usages of chrysanthemums. These flowers are notable for blooming late in the year, for their incredibly slow rate of decay, and (relatedly) for their association with death. In several European countries, they are the only floral tributes welcome at funerals. Less solemnly, these cheap, hardy blooms also have a reputation as "gas station flowers"-a last-minute, distinctly perfunctory gift, purchased alongside a tank of fuel. While Nashashibi's still life channels the chrysanthemums famously painted by Henri Fantin-Latour and Vincent Van Gogh, it also asks us to consider how and why we humans use the mortal remains of another life form, cut flowers, to mark our own days, and our own inevitable deaths.
- Tom Morton, A Room Hung With Thoughts: British Painting Now. Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, TX (US), 2025. pp. 82-83 (ill.).