Esther Janssen (1976, The Netherlands) at first glance, seems to meticulously compose handmade landscapes meant to evoke a sense of serenity and tranquility. However, as you become enveloped in the worlds she creates, that feeling morphs into inadequacy. There is something not quite right with the calibration of her worlds. The landscapes in these parallel worlds exist in an equilibrium between idealism and dissociation.

It’s not so much that everything seems too perfect; the overly manicured composition can actually be quite calming and borderline romantic. Even with a distinct lack of people, it’s not humanity that is missing. The traces of the neuross for perfection are more than present. In reality, it’s the awakening of a desire for such uncanny spaces in the first place. It’s within this duality that her work lives, between picturesque mimicry and an uncanniness that never leaves the back of your mind.

Stages of flowering is housed in Verduyn’s third pavilion, completely populating the ground floor. Taking advantage of its position in the center of the gallery grounds, situated between two lush, distinct gardens, the pavilion windows create a schism between realities. On the outside, you are met with a well-tended garden. While on the inside, you’re presented with many idyllic versions of various gardens.

Front and center are the materiality and distinctive visual language Janssen has developed by working across a variety of painting, relief, and textile-based techniques. She reinforces the artifice of her work by first creating digital compositions that are later made from artificial leather, cut, layered, and hand-sewn onto canvas. Afterwards the leather is hand painted in acrylics, helping her build a dimensionality that remains tactile while still seeming distant. Only by looking closer can you ascertain the scale of the artifices she depicts.

At every corner of the gallery space, you’re met with a variety of distinctive yet somehow very impersonal vistas, making the allure of these compositions all the more unsettling. Janssen manages to create and balance the tension between opposing principles: contemplation and disturbance, romanticism and realism, and certainty and ambiguity.