FLORAL FICTION

In the exhibition Floral Fiction, Claudia Larcher presents a fascinating reinterpretation of the still life tradition in her series Still Life 3000, inspired by the Dutch painter Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750). Ruysch, one of the most important still life painters of the Dutch Golden Age, was known for her detailed, vibrant flower arrangements, which conveyed deeper symbolic meanings beyond pure aesthetics. Her works combined scientific accuracy with artistic virtuosity, staging nature as both magnificent and ephemeral.

Claudia Larcher draws on this tradition and brings it into the digital age. With the help of artificial intelligence and digital media, she creates futuristic still lifes that merge past and present, nature and technology, and art and consumer culture.

Like an echo from another time, the still lifes unfold against a dark background – but these are not transient roses that bloom, but blossoms made of plastic, glass and pixels. An artificial flora grows between familiar relics of our present: a cracked smartphone screen replaces the fragile glass of centuries past, a golden watch as a symbol of passing time – a sign of the accelerated present. A smiling emoji – rigid, immobile – recalls the vanitas symbols of the old masters, but its expression is mute, digitally preserved. A mechanical bee hovers above the flowers, a creature made of wires and algorithms, a reference to the complex relationships between nature and technology in times of climate change and species extinction.

The colours are vibrant, the shapes are sharply defined, each element floating on the boundary between reality and simulation. Claudia Larcher’s works are not images of nature, but its digital echo – a tableau of modernity in which past and future, life and construction, beauty and transience dance together.

A special highlight of the exhibition is its interactive component: with the help of the augmented reality app Artivive, visitors can discover the ‘original’ source image by Rachel Ruysch in the digital compositions and thus experience the dialogue between baroque painting and digital art for themselves.

With the Floral Fiction exhibition, Claudia Larcher succeeds in revitalising the classic art form of the still life and impressively updating its relevance for the 21st century. The exhibition invites us to reflect on the connection between art, technology and our modern reality and to sharpen our perception of the transience – and beauty – of our digital age.

Opening: 03.07.2025, 7-9 pm

Location: Brahaus, Montée du Château, L-9710 Clervaux

Opening hours: Fri-Tue, 11:00-18:00

Date and time: 3 July 2025 – 11:00-18:00 – 28 September 2025 – 11:00-18:00
Venue: Off-site
Price: Free of charge