Review

"Orchids", Archival Photographic Print

Sylvia Rose Augustus
Flourish
(Two-person show)

9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Sixth Street Gallery
YWCA of Greater Kansas City
1710 N. 6th St.
Kansas City, KS
913.371.1105

7 a.m.-2 p.m.

Corner Coffee Cafe
Adjacent to YWCA

Sixth Street Gallery Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday
Cafe Hours: 7 a.m.-2 p.m.
Runs though: June 9

Gallery site: http://www.ywca.org/site/pp.asp?c=hvKVLbMVIuG&b=420859
Cafe site: http://www.ywca.org/site/pp.asp?c=hvKVLbMVIuG&b=420869

A story, perhaps apocryphal, relates the late geneticist J.B.S. Haldane's exchange with some theologians.

They asked what Haldane's study of nature had revealed about its creator. His reply: "I don't know, but he seems to be inordinately fond of beetles."

Orchids, too. There are more species of orchid than of any other flowering plant -- more orchid species, for that matter, than mammal and bird species combined.

(Vanilla is a member of the orchid family. Who knew?)

Whatever their place on any list of celestial favorites, orchids certainly have their earthly devotees. Entire stores are given over to selling only orchids and the supplies needed to raise them. Societies large and small have sprung up all over the world, for the purpose of appreciating and propagating them.

And, of course, they're a favorite subject for photographers, Sylvia Rose Augustus among them. Augustus' shots make up one part of the Flourish exhibition, now on display at the Sixth Street Gallery and in its adjacent Corner Coffee Cafe. St. Louis photographer Marian Brickner's photographs of water lilies make up the other part.

Augustus' pieces showcase the things that make orchids so visually irresistible:  the vibrant colors (alone and in combination), the unusual flower structure and the dizzying variety of both. Sometimes, she backs her lens up to capture the flowers in context; other times, she gets in close to focus on the blooms' inner composition, giving the photos an abstract feel.

The flowers' beauty, and Augustus' presentation of it, aren't the only layers in this show.  Biology and biography provide the others.

Orchids grow all over the world, from the tropics to subarctic climates. Some can flourish in rocky soil, others -- their roots exposed to the air -- in no soil at all.

There's a parallel here. Augustus is a transplant -- a native New Yorker who relocated to Kansas City five years ago. She has traveled extensively, both at home and abroad, and lived and worked for five years in Yosemite National Park.

She has flourished in her new home. Augustus, an architect with the General Services Administration, coordinates the agency's local arts and historic preservation programs. She also is a member of the boards of Imago Dei and the Kansas City Jewish Museum, and serves on public art selection panels on both sides of the state line.

It's a lovely parallel: the ongoing growth of a life, with all of its varied blooms and blossomings, against a backdrop of brilliant petals.

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