“But it’s their idea of nature,” he says, “whether it’s a crooked branch, or a leaf that’s dying, clinging on for life — next to a vine that’s very much alive.” Kabigting is relaying the story of his trip from inside his Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment, where he lives with Kasai and their puppy. The building is on a historic row of Greystones, and most of his home’s interior is more or less preserved from its original construction — there’s a French door frame separating the living room from the kitchen and a small nook with a stained glass window. Upon his dining room table: a spread of galvanized canisters and glass vases holding red rose buds, honeysuckle berries and flowers from a Ginkgo tree located right outside his house. He grabs a sprig of this, a handful of that, and sits at his coffee table to put together an arrangement. The stone base — which he says he picked up at Calvin Klein — has a small tool called a kenzan inside, used to hold the branches and stems in place. Snipping off ends, he places the Ginkgo flower next to some mushrooms he foraged while at a friend’s house upstate, and points to them. See? Conventional beauty — the flower — next to something a little more gnarly — an old mushroom. Asymmetry. Imperfection.
Source: latimes.com – Los Angeles Times