Lost in Paradise, 2015

‘Lost in Paradise’ by Renske van Enckevort (1985, the Netherlands) is a feast for the eye. Fleshy pink, egg yolk yellow, mauve, turquoise and various shades of orange, green and blue form a lyrical counterpoint to the darker colors defining the canvas’s lower right quadrant. The impression is that of a window looking out over a fantastical garden. In this work, Van Enckevort uses the medieval compositional device of the arch to direct the viewer’s gaze. The image is not Christian allegorical, but rather Van Enckevort’s rendition of a mutable, digitalized landscape. The arched window symbolizes the plethora of Internet windows we open daily, and through which we unthinkingly lose ourselves in paradise-like virtual worlds. ‘Lost in Paradise’ cautions us against disconnecting too much from the common ground of reality.