ROBERTO VOORBIJ

ART.2025.01.
FLORA
Concrete, spray paint
100x28x23 cm

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This spray-painted garden sculpture is part of a series that has its starting point in the disappearance of religious imagery and rituals from Dutch public space. In the still ongoing process of secularization, citizens are expected to practice their faith primarily behind closed doors. However, numerous meaningful figures can still be found in various gardens, whether consciously chosen for their religious connotation/function or not. Eve, Buddha, the four seasons, Demeter/Ceres a.o. seem to inhabit a gray area between private and public space.

What began with the purchase of the allegorical statue ‘Winter’ at ‘Intratuin Garden Center’ resulted in a research into historical origins and meaning. It started with the realization, that this specific statue was registered in the garden center's system as ‘Flower Girl,’ and offered elsewhere online as Vesta, the Roman goddess of the hearth, home, and family. That different names are given to the same figure is perhaps not so surprising. Various gods and allegories stem from a tradition that evolves over a longer period, influenced by similar traditions from other cultures. A development over time and influences between places.

Therefore, multiple names are spray painted on the plinths of the sculptures. In addition to the Latin names for respectively autumn and spring (image), the "pagan" goddesses who took their place from the Renaissance onward were chosen, supplemented by goddesses to whom they are equated or related.

Another important substantive element of this series concerns the relationship between nature and religion. Isn't religion traditionally linked to the coming and going of the seasons? Are people who live closer to nature more open to the religious and spiritual?

Although these are garden sculptures, and they specifically refer to its use as such, they are designed for indoor use.