SOLENN HEUSSAFF'S 'UNSEEN GARDEN' CARRIES LOVING TRIBUTE TO HER FATHER

SOLENN HEUSSAFF HAS ALWAYS TURNED TO PAINTING as a way of expressing what words sometimes cannot.

- By NATHALIE TOMADA

Her latest body of work, “The Unseen Garden,” now on view at Provenance Art Gallery’s pop-up in Rockwell, offers a personal look at growth, transformation and the emotional landscapes people carry within themselves.

The abstract series, which runs until Aug. 30, comes two years after “Vita,” her duo exhibition with fellow French-Filipina artist Olivia d’Aboville. In her previous works, Solenn took on political and social realism themes, painting Filipino life and everyday struggles. With “The Unseen Garden,” she turns inward, using abstraction, botanical forms and textured surfaces to explore more personal themes of growth, grief, change and renewal.

“There’s a little bit of tension, but I’m still using nature kasi, for me, nature is really my small escape. It’s where I find happiness, it’s where I go when I’m sad and I’m crying,” she told The Philippine STAR in an interview.

One of the most personal pieces in the collection is “Where The Hortensias Sing,” a work dedicated to her French father, Louis Paul, who is living with dementia.

“Hortensias are his favorite flowers — my father has dementia, so he doesn’t recognize us anymore. He’s just at home,” Solenn shared.

“So for me, this was really a mix of emotion, and it’s about how life is always shifting, how things happen, even if you don’t choose them to happen. The pink side is basically a blurred hydrangea, which is his favorite flower that’s from his town. And it’s kind of showing that over time, identity really changes and shifts. But you really need to accept what comes, and everything is moving.

“It shows that nothing stays the same. Things come and things go. So yun, that was my life. Medyo dark, but there are glimpses of lightness. You know, he’s a new person, and I’m getting to know him. He doesn’t talk much anymore, but he smiles.”