Impossible Bouquet
Romy Yedidia
6 August – 3 September 2026

Looiersgracht 60 is pleased to invite Amsterdam-based artist Romy Yedidia as artist in residence for the fourth edition of our Public Research Residency programme, which will take place in the summer period of 2026. Titled Impossible Bouquet, this residency will build upon an already existing body of work initiated during her time in residence at DOGO in Lichtensteig, Switzerland. Drawing on Susan Griffin's foundational ecofeminist book Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her (1978) a political and poetic account tracing the gradual, systemic conflation of Woman and Nature, the artist will investigate how these associations circulate through the culturally charged symbol of the flower.

For Public Research Residency IV, Romy Yedidia takes as a point of departure a personal, revelatory encounter. Shortly before giving birth, she found herself in a stand-off with a bouquet of flowers that failed to perform the meaning it was intended to carry. Arriving during a period marked by transformation and the quiet pressure to appear composed, this celebratory symbolic gesture pointed to a more complex set of associations. Rootless and decontextualized, the flowers appeared less in their natural form, and more so a curated image of it – cultivated, extracted, cut, and carefully arranged into an image of abundance, prompting Yedidia to enquire into the role of imagery in obscuring the conditions through which such images are produced. Examining the seventeenth-century Dutch floral still life tradition, which stood out for its recurring presence of “impossible bouquets”: arrangements of flowers that could not, at the time, bloom simultaneously. Here, lush floral compositions circulated as markers of artistic skill and capital, while concealing the very systems of desire and control through which they were produced and made meaningful. Drawing on Michael Pollan’s The Botany of Desire (2001) and Anna Pavord’s The Tulip (1999) Yedidia turns to the ‘broken’ tulip: a tulip variety once prized and cultivated for its unique, streaked petals, later understood to owe its appearance to a virus that weakens the bulb — pointing to the ways beauty and illness can become conditions of one another.

In the space, visitors will encounter Yedidia's installation The Enlightened (2024), directly suspended from the gallery’s structure. Three monitors flicker selected sentences from Griffin's text through decorative lace veils bearing motifs of butterflies, leaves and flowers. Often present in bra structures — garments worn closest to the body to support and decorate, shape and contain — the lace draws attention to the ways nature is used to frame the female body. Against this backdrop, Yedidia will further trace the tulip’s histories of cultivation, collection and propagation through scanning, collage, layering, sewing and embroidery. Alongside these material investigations, a new performative video work will take shape in situ, accumulating over the course of the residency.

Established in 2022 with the aim of supporting research-based artists and practitioners through resources and time to expand their body of work, the residency foregrounds process as a matter of public interest, allowing the artistic journey to become more fluid, accessible and legible.

Public Events

Public Research Residency IV – Event I – Open Studio Weekend

Date: 22–23 August 2026, 12:00–20:00

Encounter Impossible Bouquet in progress through works in development, research materials and a new video installation. Visitors are invited to speak with the artist Romy Yedidia and explore Temporary Bookshop XXI.

More info here.

Public Research Residency IV – Event II – Finissage and Artist Talk

Date: 3 September 2026, 17:30

Join Romy Yedidia and art historian Anna Lawrence as they explore how floral imagery has shaped ideals of beauty, youth and femininity across art history and contemporary visual and material culture.

More info here.