IRIS BERGMAN

As soon as you step foot into a church, you enter a timelessness where it is neither day nor night, a candlelit and liminal space that’s just as medieval as it is current. Since 2019, I have visited over 170 churches and monasteries. Within those church walls I was on the hunt for one thing in particular: bouquets.

Botanical decorations are often overlooked in the ancient grandiosity and dark spectacle of religious buildings. I wanted to bring these symbols of mourning, rebirth, tribute and beauty to the forefront. Every still-life is the result of a human gesture. The more I started to focus on the flowers people left behind, the more I discovered a whole new story behind them.

Without control over the composition I became a spectator to these hommages. This lack of control became an inexhaustible source and quest for the miraculous ways of flowers in religious settings. Flowers for Mary offers a collection of modern vanitas, emphasizing both joy and decay.