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WHAT WE CALL LUXURY
Celery used to be a luxury.
Between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was rare, expensive, and difficult to grow. Families displayed it upright at the dinner table in elaborate pressed-glass celery vases, turning an ordinary vegetable into a quiet performance of wealth.
Today, celery costs a few dollars.
That shift became the starting point for What We Call Luxury, a speculative installation asking a larger question: if something once scarce and aspirational could become ordinary and accessible, what else might?
Using the silhouette and dewdrop-like surface of the historic Hobnail celery vase as a visual language, I reimagined the vessel at architectural scale. Instead of celery, four oversized forms hold the things that increasingly function as luxuries in contemporary life: housing, education, healthcare, and groceries.
The objects spill beyond their containers, exaggerated almost to absurdity. What should be ordinary becomes spectacle.
A fifth vessel takes a different form. Enlarged into translucent Hobnail seating, it asks visitors to enter the work rather than simply observe it. People sit, talk, rest, and share space. Here, the final luxury is less tangible: time, mobility, access, community, and the freedom to imagine a life beyond survival.
The installation looks backward in order to imagine forward. A celery vase became obsolete when what it displayed stopped being scarce. Maybe one day a house key, tuition bill, medical invoice, or grocery receipt could feel just as strange as an artifact of status.
Scarcity is not permanent. Only current.
Created with @flora for the @Contra x FLORA Museum Design Challenge.
Explore the full FLORA project:
https://app.flora.ai/view/js78xcgy18w1px1ejrrhhjyw6n8dwahr
Original museum object:
Hobnail Celery vase
Hobbs, Brockunier and Company American
1886–1900
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/1507
Socials:
@dasgutesdesign
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Our entry for the @FLORA Museum Challenge!
We picked Eirene, the personification of Peace, from The Met.
The idea was simple: when we look at a piece of art, we all imagine something different.
So we played with that. Different people looking at the same sculpture, each one creating their own version of it in their head!
This is great!! Don't forget to include your Met reference link too!
Inspired by: Grere'o (Shield), Solomon Islands, early-to-mid 19th century, from The Met's open archive.
Link to Original Art : https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/310073
I liked this shield because of its beautiful pattern and shine. It has a detailed design with a human figure in the middle, made from woven cane and shiny shell pieces. It looked like something made to be seen, not just used.
What I made: I turned the shield into a surfboard, but kept its design exactly the same, same pattern, same shine, same figure. I only changed its shape into a board. I picked a surfboard because its long shape already matches the shield's shape, so it felt like a natural change.
How I made it: I downloaded the Sheild image from Met's open archive, then imported the sheild picture in flora , connected picture with text prompt node, then I connected both picture and text prompt node to the video node and I selected the seedance 2.5 model with 30sec clip, I kept the work flow simple because I am new to flora and I was afraid maybe I may use all the credits before even creating good video, add this in how I made it
Why I made this: I wanted to take this design out of the museum and give it a new life in something people can use and see in motion. I think the shield's pattern is still beautiful enough to belong in The Met today, just now on a different object.
Instagram post link: https://www.instagram.com/p/Dc3Nn8IAT2O/
Twitter(X) post link: https://x.com/AhmadSauleh/status/2095827847915163648?s=20
Such a clean fusion of culture and modern sport! Did you encounter any issues getting FLORA to keep the intricate shell pattern consistent across different camera angles
Weird, magnificent, captivating. Welcome to the Met Museum Challenge runway, where I reimagined 11 items from the archive as a fashion show.
*Please turn your sound on when watching*
The looks
I. Vase, George E. Ohr, 1897–1900
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/19874
II. Plate, Imperial Porcelain Manufactory, St. Petersburg, 1755–60
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/204533
III. Feathered panel, Wari artist(s), 650–1000 CE
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/312677
IV. Marble head of an athlete, Roman, ca. 138–192 CE
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/248579
V. Studies of Fruits, Insects and Shells, attributed to Georg Flegel, late 16th–mid-17th century
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/334930
VI. Seated Buddha, Gandhara, 1st–mid-2nd century
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/72381
VII. Vase with Molded Diamond Pattern, 10th–11th century
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/453244
with Red jasper amulet of the sun on the horizon, Egyptian, 664–334 BCE
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/243717
VIII. Miniature broad collar, early Ptolemaic, 332–246 BCE
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/547900
IX. Irises, Vincent van Gogh, 1890
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436528
X. Manuscript Leaf, from a Book of Hours, French, 15th century
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/475399
XI. Inlay, feather pattern, Ptolemaic–Roman, ca. 200 BCE–CE 100
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/551583
How I built it
Honestly, it took many, many iterations. I started with a completely different idea. It was going to be a post-apocalyptic world, and the outfits would represent the new world that came after. But the more I built it on the FLORA canvas, the more it leaned toward a fashion show, so at some point I stopped fighting it back and started creating.
Every object came onto the canvas as its own starting point and branched out from there (silhouette, material, styling). Having all 11 chains on the same board is what kept it feeling like one collection instead of eleven separate experiments.
Then I built each look magazine style, so you can see the object and the outfit side by side, the way you'd meet it in the gallery. And the runway show at the end.
I hope you'll enjoy it, and let me know which one you like the most.
This is the best I've ever seen! It's a creative idea and a work of art. I love it!