Archival Giclée Pigment Print on Archival Paper
Limited Edition of 5
35.5 x 26 in
90 x 66 cm
US $ 2,400
In this photograph from John Stathatos’ Arboretum series, the grand interior of Kew Gardens’ 19th-century Palm Court greenhouse is depicted with striking symmetry and clarity. The empty space reveals the intricate ironwork of the spiral staircase, which rises like a skeletal spine at the heart of the structure. The sweeping curves of the greenhouse's glass and iron frame form a network of graceful lines that both contain and amplify the vast emptiness within, emphasizing the grandeur and engineering precision of this Victorian marvel.
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In this photograph from John Stathatos’ Arboretum series, the grand interior of Kew Gardens’ 19th-century Palm Court greenhouse is depicted with striking symmetry and clarity. The empty space reveals the intricate ironwork of the spiral staircase, which rises like a skeletal spine at the heart of the structure. The sweeping curves of the greenhouse's glass and iron frame form a network of graceful lines that both contain and amplify the vast emptiness within, emphasizing the grandeur and engineering precision of this Victorian marvel.
With its contents removed for renovation, the greenhouse takes on a new character—an echo of its intended purpose, now stripped bare. The emptiness creates a sense of reverence, as though the building itself has become a monument to nature, even in its absence. The light filtering through the expansive glass ceiling brings a gentle luminosity that contrasts with the hard lines of iron, enhancing the sense of an open, airy cathedral of the natural world.
Stathatos’s choice to document this space during its renovation period captures a moment of pause in the greenhouse’s life, highlighting the interplay between architecture and nature within a human-designed environment. The empty beds and exposed pathways draw attention to the structure’s bones, evoking a feeling of anticipation, as if waiting for life to return. Through this image, Stathatos reveals the greenhouse as more than a container for plants; it is an architectural statement, a historical artifact, and a testament to humanity’s ambition to enclose and shape nature within ordered, geometric beauty.