Lauren Reed’s work explores the historical importance of the flower, more specifically the use of the flower as a symbol of the delicacy and sexualisation of the female form. What influences her work is the exploration of visual representation of the overly sexualised female body sculpted by the media. Georgia O’Keeffe’s flower paintings and Robert Mapplethorpe’s photography provide strong influence towards her work. Both artists’ works were falsely associated with the sexual metaphor of the flower, even though having no primary intention of this; the strength of the metaphor overpowered the innocence of the initial meaning. Reed purposefully uses flowers such as orchids to heighten the visual link between the flower and the vagina, using shapes and colours that subconsciously sway the viewer’s perception of the flower as something of sexual reference, and by presenting the flower in the position of the woman’s vagina increases the sexual symbolism of the flower.
