Caladium
World #19, 2006
Ruud van Empel
Cibachrome
Museum Henriette Polak Zutphen, The Netherlands
Ruud van Empel
Cibachrome
Museum Henriette Polak Zutphen, The Netherlands
In the World Collection by Ruud van Empel, composition World #19 shows a girl in a green dress alone in the forest. The earthly background and the young child create an almost fairytale-like feeling. The catch is this whole composition is photoshopped, from the eyes to the leaves — a complete work of patchwork; van Empel calls it photo-realism or digital collage. Ruud van Empel first starts off collecting all the features he needs from a variety of young models to create the child. Then he wanders through Dutch forests, nurseries, and streets in search of natural elements to compose them into a dream-like scene. Zooming into the woods, we are focusing on the leaf that pink, white, and green, it is known as a tropical New World tuberous herbaceous plant called Caladium.
Caladium is a genus of flowering plants from the family of the Araceae. It is referred to by various names such as Elephant Ears, Heart of Jesus, and Angel Wings. The plant is native to tropical rain forests and equator regions of South and Central America from southern Mexico to Peru and east to Brazil. This is where seven native species are from. In the present day, there are over 1000 known varieties of the plant from all over the world. This includes North America, India, parts of Africa, Caribbean islands such as Puerto Rico. They are also found in parts of Europe.
The Caladium grow in open, hot, humid, and damp areas such as in forest and on the banks of rivers. All parts of the Caladium plant are poisonous, so they are only used as ornamental plants and house plants. Because of the large colorful arrow-shaped leaves in varying patterns, they have have become a staple in gardens. The two most common types of Caladium plants are the Fancy-Leafed which have large heart-shaped leaves and the Lance-Leafed which the leaves are narrow and elongated.
It is known that the Caladiums were first bread by two Frenchmen, Louis Van Houtte and Alfred Blue in the 1860s. Over time the plant has been grown in the mass production throughout Europe, but the most well known Caladium production takes place in central Florida. Every summer in Florida, they have a festival for the beauty of the Caladium fields. It's been said that the fields are so striking they've been compared to the tulip fields in Holland.