Hieronymus Bosch Takes Tea in Dunorlan Park was commissioned by Tunbridge Wells Museum for their Parklife exhibition. The title refers
to an elegant and recently restored public park in the town.
Tunbridge Wells has an image of dull Victorian respectability that is
perhaps not wholly deserved. The idea of a park is at odds with such an image. Dunorlan park is a controlled intrusion of unruly,
dangerous nature into the orderly townscape, a place that licenses fantasy, where a Roman temple can nestle amidst the shrubbery and
statues may go innocently unclad. It reminds me of Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights, that famous depiction of strange goings on
in a dream-like landscape.
What could be more respectable than afternoon tea? Somehow afternoon tea and Tunbridge Wells belong together.
And yet, like the park, it too is a licence to indulge in sweet, forbidden things.
I have brought these ideas together in Hieronymus
Bosch Takes Tea in Dunorlan Park, in which the cakes become gardens, owing something to Bosch and a couple of things (the fountain
and the temple) to Dunorlan.
Hieronymus Bosch takes tea in Dunorlan Park. 2005. Resin, Preiser figures, glass crockery, table, lace cloth and other materials.
