"The presence of the garden is felt in every room in the house at 87 Hackford Road, becoming more like another room, an interior space beyond. I photographed the house when lockdown was easing, initially meeting in the garden to maintain social distancing. Gradually emerging from our homes to meet outside, we have all become ‘figures in gardens’ during this very unusual summer.
The phrase itself derives from one of Van Gogh’s letters to his brother Theo in relation to Japanese painting (Van Gogh Letter 545) but reminds me intensely of English literature and many of my favourite novels. I think of figures in gardens being watched by figures at windows and the narratives that can unravel between these two seemingly opposing perspectives on the world before them." - Isabelle Young
'Figures in gardens' is one of a series of images by photographer Isabelle Young capturing Van Gogh House in June 2020, just as Britain began to emerge from lockdown.
Product information:
C-type print
2020
26 x 17.2 cm (not including frame or mount)
Signed edition of 7 (Plus 2 APs)
Editions 1-4
£600.00 GBP
Editions 5-7
£800.00 GBP
About the Artist:
Isabelle Young (b. 1989, London, UK) graduated from the Royal College of Art, London with an MA in Photography (2022) and is a recent recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Artist Grant (2024). Isabelle Young: Stills, her first solo exhibition in London, presented a new photographic series rooted in neorealist cinema (2023). The solo exhibition Isabelle Young: In Camera at Galerie Fabian Lang, Switzerland (2022) focused on various architectural series, and the gallery recently presented her work at Artissima, Turin, Italy (2023) and Felix Art Fair, Los Angeles, USA (2023). Collections include Credit Suisse Collection, Switzerland; Museo Casa Mollino, Turin, Italy; Katrin Bellinger Collection, London, UK; Simmons and Simmons, London, UK; and Palazzo Monti, Brescia, Italy.
Perspective and narrative positioned within the confinement of architecture are central to Isabelle Young’s work. Windows do not lead straight onto life but divide space to create a continuous sense of ambiguity. Young’s own autobiography as a third-generation Italian, born in London, also shapes her particular way of seeing and is therefore the framework to her practice. All her work is shot on film and she is continually drawn to analogue photography due to its privacy.