Elspeth Diederix - Sottobosco

Sottobosco is the name given to the forest-floor still lifes of the 17th century: dark paintings of plants, insects and flowers, several of which are in the collection of Rijksmuseum Twenthe. For Het Groene Lab, the museum's programme for artists working in its gardens, Elspeth Diederix took these paintings as the starting point for a new shade garden among the oak trees behind the museum. The plants she grew there became the subject of a new series of photographs, shown in the museum next to the paintings that inspired them.

We designed the identity of the exhibition: posters, wall texts in Dutch and English, a large wall print and the signs in the garden. The posters use Diederix's photographs edge to edge, with white type set directly on their dark backgrounds. In the garden, the information is printed on wooden panels, with botanical drawings and short texts about the plants.