A BOTANICAL VISUAL LANGUAGE
In her porcelain wall installations, Alice Riehl develops a botanical visual language to evoke the contemporary and universal issues that matter most to her, highlighting certain traits or behaviors characteristic of humans as a species. Yet she deliberately avoids any form of anthropomorphism, instead drawing on the power and beauty of plants to emphasize the influence of this form of life. In Lignage, she explores the complexity of family bonds. Through Alter Ego, she revisits the moments of doubt and hope experienced during the Covid lockdowns. And with Autoportrait, she elevates the selfie to an instrument of empowerment.
Her works share a common concern with the positions that plants or humans occupy, claim, or consent to. In Songe, she denounces the limited space given to women in art history by paying tribute to Dibutade. With Dent-de-Lion and later Timidité, she began her exploration of the relationship between urban life and the plant world, a theme she continued during her residency at Villa Albertine in New York in 2025, by questioning the roles assigned to plants in our cities.
