Designboom_Christophe Guinet, also known as Monsieur Plant, reveals an excerpt from his curious botanical collection — a series of Bonzaï trees planted in sneakers where we can see the root system that runs through it from one side to the other. With Bonzaï Sneakers, the Parisian artist continues his playful explorations of how footwear and nature can intertwine to create whimsical artworks, as seen in his Sneakerium and Just Grow It series. With this project, the plant sculptures are reminiscent of the mangrove ecosystem that develops along the protected coasts of tropical and subtropical areas.

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.