“I love peonies, but wait a second, they’re fake; I hate them.” An architectural historian considers the contradictions of artificial flowers and the unnatural nature of Central Park. A conversation at the Bard Graduate Center about the “fake” – her word – and the real, with music from Amiri and Rahiem Taylor. Photo by Harry Wilks.

• •  PERSON: Frederick Law Olmsted
  •  PLACE: the Guggenheim museum
  •  THING: a fake bouquet
  •  RANDY’S THING: artificial ancestors