Image: Adam Norton, The garden, 2025.
The Garden of Time is a group exhibition featuring works by six diverse artists from Australia and the Netherlands. The title of the exhibition is taken from J. G. Ballard’s nostalgic short story of impending doom and the appreciation of beauty as time runs out and a new age unfurls. In Ballard’s story, exquisite crystal flowers on the verge of extinction have the ability to push back the inevitable. Within the gallery space at Woollahra, overlooking Blackburn Gardens and Sydney Harbour, the commissioned artworks stand in for the exotic time flowers in Ballard’s story, they are glistening jewels with ulterior motives. They not only embody time in their creation, but hold it back from the forces of destruction—if only temporarily.
Artists: Sanne Bax (NL), Daan den Houter (NL), Evelyn Malgil (AU), Adam Norton (AU), Vivian Cooper Smith (AU), and Anique Weve (NL).
Curator: Samantha Ferris (AU)