Dominik Fleischmann

Location → Höyrymyllyntie 11, Oulu

Dominik Fleischmann’s Leaf Print Garden is an interactive art installation where visitors are invited to create photographs on leaves, in memory of the companions who nurture us.

The work is a combination of urban garden and alternative photography workshop that opens up new perspectives on plants, companionship and sunlight, through the tender chlorophyll process.

The outdoor installation features an arrangement of wooden planter boxes where pollinator friendly flowers and large leaved plants grow. What makes these boxes unique is their additional function as a print making station. Chlorophyll printing is an alternative photographic technique making use of photosynthesis, where a photographic image is developed on a leaf. In this natural process the picture is exposed directly through sunlight on plant or tree leaves.

It is a living installation, thriving on the curiosity of many. Visitors, young and old, become caretakers, artists, and explorers. Visitors are encouraged to water the plants and create their own photographs of a companion (human and not) who they would like to remember in a leaf. The final leaf artworks can be taken home or exhibited in the garden’s gallery. While the abundance of leaves can be utilised by human visitors to create organic photographs, the flowers and fruiting bodies are meant for the local wildlife and pollinators as an invitation to feast on whatever the little garden has to offer.

The artist’s wish for this installation is that people will revisit the Leaf Print Garden often, become familiar with the different plants and engage in a multi-species dialogue: By creating their personal stories on leaves—and in return, give back to the garden by nurturing the plants.