The Nature of Loss is a search for connection with my grandfather through what he has left behind.

In 2014, after his passing, I meticulously documented my grandparents’ home, in an attempt to capture and hold on to my childhood home and its last physical connection to South Africa. In 2015 the house was demolished. I returned in 2019, to document what was left behind. Now, in 2021, I have returned home, through my archive.

The Nature of Loss focuses on the impact my grandfather had on the space, the legacy he has left behind. Notably, a large greenhouse filled to the brim with indigenous plants, along with a repurposed tennis court filled with the more mature plants that he replanted into the wild, as well as an extensive garden filled with indigenious plants.

This project enables me to create a relationship with my granddad that was not possible before, one that I always wanted but was not able to have. The resulting work is a continuation of his legacy, using photographs I took from his greenhouse and my own research on the plants he planted, in combination with recollections of interactions with him. I am interacting with his passions and therefore himself, discovering a relationship between us by following in his botanical footsteps artistically.

Photographs taken bij Leonie Fernhout