Untitled (from the series Lamentations in the Garden)

Lamentations in the Garden, is a series in which Veronica Ryan (b.1956) altered a family photograph of herself and her sister standing in the family’s back garden in London. Ryan commented on her use of family photographs: ‘After the death of a second sibling, both due to suicide, I wanted to find a direct way in my work to deal with that particular kind of loss and grief; this was the only way.’ Asked about the significance of the motif of the garden in her work, Ryan said ‘Gardens and plants are places for repose. Visually beautiful, the scent of plants as one of our sensory receptors, provides some pathway to comfort and healing’ (Veronica Ryan, September 2020).