A contemplation on Goethe’s concept of the metamorphosis in plant life. He discovered that the phenomena of the organic world do not only mutually condition themselves. Instead, each individual appearance is formed by a holistic idea. In the study of the growth of plants he noticed, that the metamorphosis of needles and leaves of different species all emerge from a primal form, the Typus. The different species are its special appearances, and outer circumstances are just causing modifications. This points to a metaphysical process that is the same in all plants, which Goethe called the Urpflanze: a universal plant type that generates all the manifold forms of the plant kingdom. According to Goethe’s method an infinite number of plants can be invented. They have to be self-evident and possess an inner truth and necessity.

Limestone sculpture.

Type: Artwork
Place: Berlin
Year: 1998
Authorship: Georg Windeck