Karen Azoulay
CREATIVE CONVERSATIONS
Photo of Karen Azoulay by Ryan Slack
Karen Azoulay
is a Canadian-born, Brooklyn-based artist and author who is passionate about the cultural history of flowers. Her book Flowers and Their Meanings: The Secret Language and History of Over 600 Blooms was selected by Barnes & Noble as one of the best books of 2023. Most recently, her expertise was tapped by Vogue to help decipher the secret meanings behind the floral looks on the red carpet at the Met Gala.
Where you can find Karen
Artwork by Karen Azoulay
You’ve described your work as recontextualizing motifs and cultural phenomena that have often been overlooked in the traditional canon of art. How does your work reframe flowers and floral motifs?
Anything considered to be feminine or girly has typically been presumed superficial, vapid, or overly sentimental. This has been especially true for florals. There are many fascinating examples of women using those preconceived notions to their advantage. For example, demure blossoms have been used to disseminate forbidden information. Hidden within the pages of a pretty volume of floral poetry from the 1800s (written by women, for women readers) you might find an abrupt section of serious science. Likewise, buried within a seemingly ditzy pamphlet filled with floral symbolism could be information about where to obtain an herbal abortifacient.
In a time when women and girls were not able to speak up, much less reveal their personal feelings about romance and sex, the language of flowers could be used to express themselves discreetly. The intimate rituals of life related to courtship, friendship, healing, and grieving often involve flowers. The evolution, nuance, and power of those traditions deserve to be studied as a serious part of our shared history.
Artwork by Karen Azoulay
Are there personal elements incorporated into your own botanical work and art?
My piece Flower Diary is perhaps my best example of a botanical creation that involves a personal element. In January 2017, I was feeling depressed. Fear about the state of the world was getting me down. As an exercise to connect to my natural surroundings, and to search for a little bit of positivity, I decided to collect flowers for one calendar year.
Whether it was a wildflower from between the cracks in the sidewalk or a bigger bloom from my birthday bouquet, I was in search of little bursts of color and optimism. Each blossom was pressed and preserved in archival laminate. At the end of the year, I sewed them all together into a personal herbarium that documented my year.
Artwork by Karen Azoulay
What was the genesis of your book Flowers and Their Meanings ?
I’ve always been fascinated by the nineteenth-century craze for the language of flowers. Also known as floriography, people sent secret messages via coded bouquets. Flirtatious messages could be composed through a careful selection of blooms. After receiving a bouquet, you were likely to run to your flower dictionary to decipher the hidden meaning. A bunch of chickweed would propose a “rendezvous,” while a combo of hibiscus and ranunculus articulated “Delicate beauty, I am dazzled by your charms.”
Les fleurs, 1825, from The New York Public Library
Inspired by this tradition, I curated a group show in 2015 at the Grecian Shelter in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. The artists were invited to show floral work with the understanding that their pieces would be “read” through the Victorian language of flowers. I self-published a 20-page flower dictionary so viewers could translate each piece. It was a blast to introduce people to floriography. I created the booklet just for the one day event, but it grew to have a life of its own.
I started to receive invitations to give talks on the subject. With continued research, I developed a historical perspective about how this culture came to be that I didn’t see in other books on the topic. That’s how it all started. Flowers and Their Meanings includes that collected history.
The book is also a functioning flower dictionary listing symbols and botanical tales for more than 600 species. To create the artwork for the book, I collaged nineteenth-century botanical illustrations alongside photographic elements of eyes, mouths, and hands. These elements point to the ways we communicate our feelings. I wanted to evoke how we quite literally “say it with flowers.”
What’s the most surprising thing you uncovered about floral symbolism when writing the book?
It’s a universal impulse. Since the Paleolithic era, people around the world have looked to the transient beauty of flowers to help communicate love and sorrow.
Mesu Smelling a Lotus, Egypt, ca. 1525 - 1504 B.C.; Papyrus Marsh, Egypt, ca 1427 - 1400 B.C.;
Theatrical Jacket for a Court Lady, China, 18th century; all via the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Nami-chi-dori by Ogawa Kazumasa, 1896,
via The Getty Museum Collection
Your newsletter is fascinating – how do you decide on the different topics and themes for each edition?
Thank you! I have so much fun gathering stories. The newsletter has become a wonderful outlet to share my botanical research and build a floral community. To be honest, choosing from my long list of potential topics is the hardest part.
I recently published an issue about chrysanthemums - a flower that holds important significance in various cultures. In nineteenth-century England, the flower was linked to “Cheerfulness under adversity.” According to Chinese floral symbolism, chrysanthemums are emblamatlic of “‘Longevity.” I was excited to include some of the beautiful hand-tinted collotypes from 1896 by the Japanese photographer Ogawa Kazumasa.
Valentine - Mechanical bouquet, baby boy bunting, anonymous,
British, 19th century, via The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Another recent post explored Linnaeus’s proposed Flower Clock. The concept was that you’d be able to tell the time of day just by looking at which flowers were opened or shut. One fun story was about the British florist Constance Spry. In the 1920s, her shocking addition of kale to an arrangement of scarlet roses displayed in a perfume shop window was so scandalous, the police had to be called to disperse the crowd! Last year my Valentine’s Day post was all about purple violets - which was the official valentine flower until well into the twentieth century!
Detail of a valentine in Papers of Elizabeth B. Hall, 1617-2006,
via the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University
“Whether it was a wildflower from between
the cracks in the sidewalk or a bigger
bloom from my birthday bouquet, I was in
search of little bursts of color and optimism.”
What do you think the most subversive use of flowers has been?
Poisonous flowers are probably involved in some of the most subversive uses of flowers. In a much more lighthearted sense, I love the Victorian drama of sending a subversive bouquet. Floriography was not only used to flirt and share kind sentiments such as condolences and gratitude. Flowers could be selected to deliver a passive aggressive message or start a petty war.
Artwork by Karen Azoulay
Flowers and Their Meanings includes a Mood Index which features a selection of flowers organized by sentiment such as Love & Friendship, Compliments & Cheer, and even Insults & Loathing! Bee Balm, for example, declares “Your whims are quite unbearable,” and a Frog Orchid communicates “Disgust.”
Handpicked
A few of Karen’s favorites…
Favorite flower
It’s impossible to pick a favorite, but I do love the controversial dandelion. The enigmatic symbol is “Rustic Oracle” which nods to the sweet, superstitious ritual of making a wish while blowing on the seed head. The dandelion’s ability to transform from a golden yellow burst into a silvery globe connects it to the sun and moon. The seeds floating away represent the stars.
Favorite season
Autumn energizes me with that back-to-school feeling, but after a cold and dreary winter, early blooms that promise spring will return give me such a thrill. There is great anticipation to peep my first snowdrop of the year. Crocuses will follow, then daffodils, and tulips.
Current color obsessions
When I can’t decide between two colors of paint, I have to admit that the descriptive name on the back of the paint chip does have some sway. Even though I love all colors, it won’t be a surprise that I have a special fondness for any hue that’s named after a flower such as fuchsia, lilac, lavender, periwinkle, violet, and pink.
Favorite botanical destinations
Brooklyn Botanic Garden is just a few blocks away, so I get to visit it all the time. I love to wander around, noticing little changes from one week to the next. Away from home, epic gardens Lotusland in Santa Barbara and Rousham in England come to mind.
Photo of snowdrops in a field, above, by Belinda Fewings @bel200a via Unsplash
Photo of Lotusland, below, by brewbooks, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Thank you so much, Karen!
Where to find
Flowers and Their Meanings
Photo by David Smith
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