I found their project, "Poster Pocket Plants" through a fashionista website, Modish.
It's almost not fair how well she speaks about this work. I want to take half of her description and use that as an artist statement. Isn't that the same issue visiting artist Hank Willis Thomas had?
Eric Cheung and Sean Martindale are based in Toronto, Canada. Armed with box cutters and gloves, the artists cut into poster advertisements and shape funnels from the poster material. These then become homes for various plant life which liven the urban landscape. Sadly, the life-span of these plants are very short; as these pocket plants are filled with a handful of soil and a few sprays of water. Their lives are also severed by a posting of a new advertisement. The plants are also victims of theft. This however hasn't discouraged their makers. They continue planting and have begun to experiment with new plants which can survive in different heat and lighting conditions.
While the inventors of Poster Pocket Plants recognize that their instillations are ephemeral, the succeed in re-instating nature into the visual chaos present in urban cities.They also provide a templates on their blog for this project which invites participation. In an interview with the garden activists, Martindale speaks of "activating public space" and "introducing nature to the urban environment in ways that might encourage others to do the same, or to at least consider such possibilities." (Torontoist)
I have never felt such a greater bond with an artist(s) before. I connect to their work so strongly because it has all the elements of artwork that I believe in. The flowers I have created of marketing advertisements in catalogues and magazines are a scaled down versions of their mega billboard posters. The ideology of re-contextualizing nature is there as well. I think I might try to make a pocket planter.
Here are some great images:
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