Diana Scherer is a visual artist living and working in Amsterdam. She is born in Lauingen Germany and studied fine art at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. Her practice encompasses botany, material research, textiles and sculpture. Recent shows include Manifesta 15 Metropolitana, Reset Now – Haus der Kunst Munchen, Soil – Somerset House London, Farming Textiles - Museum Kranenburgh, Intelligence of Plants - Frankfurter Kunstverein, Biennale of Sydney 2022, Gene Cultures – MIT Museum Cambridge, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Fashioned from Nature at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and Shenzhen.

In her ongoing project Interwoven 2015 – , Diana Scherer focuses on the dynamics of underground plant parts. The root system, with its hidden, subterranean life, is considered by plant neurobiologists to be the plant’s brain. In this project, the artist brings to light subterranean processes.

Scherer employs a unique technique that uses the natural growth processes to create various structures out of root tissues. She derives her patterns from shapes found in the botanical world, as well as from man-made structures. The results are tactile and poetic, and her creative process invokes the current ecological balance between humans and nature. The work and process, however, raises some further critical questions: To what extent does speaking of cooperating with nature make any sense? And is it in any way consistently logical? Are conditions that are part of self-sufficient natural processes being artistically and culturally appropriated? These questions reveal the fundamental ambivalence in our dealings with nature. The artist continuously investigates the interplay between (plant) culture and (plant) nature. Scherer’s work is thought-provoking, but above all it’s a poetic portrayal of the human urge to control nature.

Interwoven has been honoured by the New Material Award 2016. The New Material Award is a biennial prize organized by Het Nieuwe Instituut Rotterdam that challenges artists and designers to develop sustainable materials and innovative technologies. Scherer developed the project from idea to material, grown dress – sculptures to large-scale installations.