REBEKKA MACHT

"When I moved my studio to Accra in 2024, I moved into a fully tiled compound, which has become common in Accra; eliminating soil and green space, and making the hot city climate even hotter. In response, I began cultivating a garden using recycled water-canisters as planters. Slowly, the space is transforming. What began as a practical solution became an extension of my work: a daily practice of tending to life in a place where nature had been removed. This garden has opened a new visual and conceptual branch in my work. I’ve long been obsessed with taking close-up „portraits“ of plants. Recently, I’ve started translating them into paintings that explore sensuality and the fragile persistence of life. They reflect the psychological terrain that runs through my figurative work while grounding it in ecological care, a care that goes beyond human relations.

​One of the most interesting aspects in exploring this new terrain – painting flowers – has been looking at the similarities to portraits. The differences in subject matter are obvious, but what about the brush strokes they share? What about a portrait-like care for detail and expression, what about the large close-up focus on a group of blossoms? What about sensuality, and a simultaneous presence of weight and light/ness?

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Inspired by my little garden, I expanded my exploration of care to a field beyond human connection; into nature. My visual language - of depth of texture, expressive brushstrokes, color choices and layering of paint into a ‘landscape-y’ feel - all translated into the sensuality of plant life, one of momentary beauty. The guiding of a life cycle that might be nonhuman, but enables our human existence."