Eeuwig Herbarium is part of Anne Geene's Museum of the Plant. A work-in progress that she has been working on for a couple of years. The Museum of the Plant is a fictional, slightly absurd "museum" that focuses on all aspects of plants that other museums do not discuss. Coincidence, strange growth, social status, plants that grow in special places, plants with a special owner, etc.
Congruent with the general line of her artistic practice focused on counting, measuring, and creating inventories of nature, this Eeuwig Herbarium brings an ode to grass, an undervalued but widely cultivated groundcover.
Through photography Anne Geene archives, organizes, interprets and arranges the world around her. Later she analyses and catalogues this information in a seemingly logic way. Seemingly, because interpretation of the collected data is essentially personal and an ironic reference to our eagerness to organize and know everything.
In her work, the relationship between the photographic image and science is a central theme. She explores the issues of scientific objectivity and of photography as a medium used for this purpose. Although photography’s objectivity has been questioned many times, it is exactly this objectivity that gives it this probative power. Here is where she finds her inspiration.
Most recent presentations of Anne Geene include a.o. The Rijksmuseum, the Kröller-Müller Museum, Het Nederlands Fotomuseum (the Gallery of Honour of Dutch Photography), NEST, h3h biënnale. Past exhibitions include a.o. Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Centquatre-Paris, Museum Jan Cunen. Anne Geene’s work is in the collections at a.o. The Rijksmuseum, Het Nederlands Fotomuseum, The Kröller-Müller Museum, Museum Van Bommel Van Dam, Van Gogh House, ING, LUMC, KPMG, Ministry of Education, Culture and Science & Ministry of Foreign Affairs.