Bonzaï Sneakers

Artist — Mr Plant – Christophe Guinet
Project — Bonzaï sneakers 
Role — Art Direction
Plant — Bonzaï
Date — March 2024

Roots of bonsaï trees grow through sneakers in Monsieur Plant’s botanical sculpture series.

MONSIEUR PLANT’S BONZAI SNEAKERS INTERTWINE ART AND NATURE
Following our coverage of Monsieur Plant‘s unusual sculpture series of ‘sneakerium’ and ‘retro flower sneakers‘, the artist rediscovers the beauty in the natural environment with a new collection of sneaker art pieces. The shoes carved out of plant-based natural materials harvested in the heart of the Breton countryside in France, step straight out of a magical universe, the ‘Mushroom Party’. Intrigued by the diversity and abundance of mushrooms in the area, the creative shapes five fully vegetated sneakers with growing fungi. The composed pop-favorite shoes use botanical life to speak on the theme regarding the cycle of life of everyday objects.

THE BOTANICAL SCULPTURES EXPLORE THE CYCLE OF LIFE
Monsieur Plant has come closer to a subject that today constitutes the common thread of his works: the reappropriation by nature of cult objects created by man. ‘It is poetic to see this nature take back what was once its own,’ says the artist. Each work of Bonzaï Sneakers contorts a plant into a NIKE shoe, its roots and weeds puncturing through the leather.

His prior natural sculptures follow similar forms, presenting whimsical configurations where nature becomes one with art, and sneakers are given new life as a plant host. In Sneakerium, Monsieur Plant speaks on the cyclical nature of life, presenting a fun and unusual way to recycle a pair of shoes. By placing the shoes in an ‘aquarium’ filled with water, plants, and soil, a new life as a plant host is given to a pair of sneakers after being thrown out. In Just Grow It, the iconic NIKE slogan is reimagined by cultivating sneaker-shaped vegetable- and plant-based sculptures.