Silke Riis

‘The Red Fruit’ and ‘The Egg’ spent the entire month of October installed in the garden of as part of the exhibition Futura Botanica, organised by during Breda’s History Month 🍇🥚

They endured everything the Dutch October-weather could offer, which consisted mainly of crazy storm and rain (as seen in the last slide) - on those days, ‘The Red Fruit’ could still be enjoyed from the warm library through the big windows, in company of a good book (sci-fi maybe?) 📚👽

(The experience made me eager to develop more works for outdoor installations, and I already have a project brewing for a while now, so please don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you know of a garden or courtyard or other outside space that needs a slowly transforming sculpture 🤍🤝)

In the exhibition I showed works alongside and - photos by 🤍

The Red Fruit, The Abundance, and The Egg in The Garden of Earthly Delights 🍓⛲️❣️🥚🌳🍇🍏

In the summer of 2024 I participated in the group show ‘De Bredase Tuinen Der Lusten’ for which I made three sculptures, each inspired by one of the three panels of the infamous triptych ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’ by Hieronymus Bosch, 1490-1510. I named them “The Red Fruit”, “The Abundance” and “The Egg” 🍇💐🥚

For over a month, as summer became autumn, these sculptures were exhibited outdoors in three public gardens of Breda: Begijnhof, Nieuwe Veste and Stedelijk Museum Breda 🌳

Now, has invited me back to Breda, and two of the sculptures, The Red Fruit and The Egg, are returning to the beautiful and historic garden of Nieuwe Veste for the exhibition ‘Futura Botanica’. Here, Breda’s oldest trees, monumental mulberries from the 18th century, will stand side by side with futuristic plants imagined by me, and during the Breda Month of History 👽

The exhibition opens this Saturday, Oct. 4th, and will be on view until Oct. 31st. I hope to see you there! 🌳💫🍇🍳

I will also host a workshop related to the show, in which you will learn how to cast latex in raw clay molds, and take part in the creation of new sculptures that will inhabit the garden during the exhibition. Tickets and more info are to be found on KOP’s website (kop.nu → Agenda → Futura Botanica workshop)

…and if you are interested to read more about the sculptures and their individual connections to Bosch’s triptych, you can find more in depth info on my website under ‘Earthly Delights’ 🙂‍↕️🤝

Documentation by 📸