Jade Kievits

I have this love for the natural world, it has been with me ever since childhood. I used to spend a lot of time in my grandfather’s garden, a space he built through harmony, depth and form. I remember him pointing out every plant and telling me about their characteristics. His attitude towards the natural world was contagious and gave me the attention, respect, and tenderness I still hold today.

In Dutch society, we are increasingly becoming estranged from the natural world. We are losing our attention, our willingness to slow down, to look, and to notice. The Looking Garden returns to my grandfather’s garden in memory, and to what it taught me: wonder lives in the act of looking itself.

I remember, at the back of the garden there were separate perkjes (plant beds), each evoking their own feeling, yet contributing to a larger whole. The five black-and-white works carry that same essence. Alongside are vibrant archival images, taken by my grandmother, showing fragments of that very garden. Combined, the space becomes a looking garden: a place to slow down, discover, admire and wonder.