Landscape Plastic Surgery

This may be a bad sign: I saw Thomas Flechtner's show at Marianne Boesky gallery less than a week ago, and I couldn't remember a single image. I had to refer to my notes and visit the gallery's website to refresh my memory. But when I did, I remembered, "Oh, I liked this stuff." The exhibit has two parts: one uses lightboxes to showcase photos of blownout cherry blossom trees, while the other focuses on large-scale color images of razed landscapes. The photos of man's attempts to recreate Mother Nature's handiwork are most interesting. The land is cropped and corralled in a sad imitation of what it use to be. So organized, so tidy, and so half-dead. Sort of like landscape plastic surgery. (Images via Marianne Boesky gallery)