ABSTRACT
Verdures is part of an ongoing investigation of the relationship between landscape and mimicry camouflage - a particular kind of concealment pattern that has become widely used by hunters. Mimicry camouflage achieves visual dissimulation by combining photorealistic images of plants found in a particular ecosystem during a specific season. The result is an image with multiple roles: at once, a mode of concealment in a landscape and a synthetic representation of that landscape at a distinct moment. Verdures is a camouflage designed specifically for the green spaces of Paris during mid-fall. The pattern is printed onto garments designed to be worn by a single person, buttoned together to form large shelters, or fixed to a wall as a tapestry. In doing so it may “naturalize” the built environment, obscure activities and engage the city landscape in new ways. Taken out of its ecological context, the pattern gains an ornamental quality, blurring the line between hiding and revealing.
