Artist Diana Scherer, born in Germany and based in Amsterdam for over 25 years, is a returning participant of ROOTS—having been part of the first exhibition in Milano (2024), as well as Dutch Design Week and Milano Design Week 2025.​

 

With her Farming Textiles, Scherer quite literally grows her work. By designing patterns beneath the soil, she guides plant roots as they develop—allowing them to intertwine and form intricate, lace-like structures. Once unearthed, these living compositions reveal a delicate textile made entirely by nature.​

 

This approach is explored in depth in her award-winning book Interwoven: Exercises in Root System Domestication, where she reflects on the process of shaping root growth and the complex relationship between human intention and natural autonomy.

 

The sculptural work presented here has been especially grown for the ROOTS Exhibition. Alongside it, refined lace pieces expose the remarkable tissues that emerge through natural growth—fragile, tactile, and alive.​

 

In the accompanying video, filmed at Museum Kranenburgh in Bergen aan Zee, Scherer shares her process, offering insight into this unique dialogue between cultivation and design.

 

Within ROOTS – Sleeping Beauty: A Symbiotic Symphony, her work embodies both control and surrender. The roots follow a human-made pattern, yet grow on their own terms—inviting reflection on the possibilities, and limitations, of domesticating nature and on our evolving relationship with the living world.

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dianascherer.com