Mountain Ash, 2019

The series Fragments of Garden by Arjan van Helmond (1971, Netherlands) immerses the viewer in a nocturnal garden. Paintings mounted on a panoramic drawing loom up like snapshots in the dark. Van Helmond visited the paradisal garden of his parents-in-law in Lebanon in the winter, when the place was dormant but filled with the fragrance of ripening oranges. Built up of thin layers of gouache and acrylic, these paintings function as time capsules containing recorded memories.

Van Helmond’s work prompts us to consider the meaning of the objects, places and spaces in our direct surroundings. He prefers to paint unspectacular, even banal aspects of daily life: a seascape, a garden, the house we live in, the carpet under our feet, souvenirs and ornaments in the cabinet. Images which, without being explicitly narrative, say something about our history, culture, clichés and everyday human behavior.