Dissolution, decay, dying,
rotting.
The end is inevitable.
This last stage before complete destruction.
Hortus Persephonae reveals
decadence of something
that has been flourishing
and alive.
Dead flowers, broken stalks, rotten leaves, insect remains, their trunks
and abdomens.
All this sinks in the dark
limbo.
The cycle makes its turn.
Beauty fades faster.
Styx’ turbid waters
swallows what is mortal.
Passing and death
are elements of permanent
cycle, they can never go
concealed.
The clear associations
with northern european
Baroque masters
juxtapose very vivid
images with vanitas—method of accentuating,
in still lives.
It is just one way of perceiving it.
Hortus Persephonae
is different kind of appeal,
it is gentle melancholy,
imminence of the demise,
the proximity of the end.
⁄ text by Wiktor Skok⁄