Darren Almond: The Giverny Polaroids

Darren Almond's Giverny project

"Apart from painting and gardening, I am good for nothing," Claude Monet wrote to a friend, favouring a life in Giverny, 3 km from Vernon on the Seine coming from Paris. He had come here in 1883, initially remodelling the house and garden extensively and turning the Clos Normand into an ornamental garden. Later, in 1893, he bought a large plot of land above the street, today's Chemin du Roy, where he created his famous water lily pond with the Japanese bridge, which was to dominate his work from 1897 until his death on 5 December 1926. The road is one of the reasons why there is no other view of the bridge by Monet; it is also said that his gardeners cleaned the water lilies of road dust every day on his instructions, until he finally simply had the road tarmaced at his own expense. Darren Almond, born in 1971, now lives in London and works extensively on photography under the full moon. His participation in the legendary "Sensation" exhibition in 1997, his work in the pavilion at the 2003 Venice Biennale and, last but not least, his nomination for the Turner Prize in 2005 have made him one of the most outstanding contemporary English artists. Following his exhibition at the Villa Merkel and the accompanying cassette "Nocturne", this publication with the new photographs of floral motifs in Monet's garden emphasises the sculptural aspect of Darren Almond's photographic work. This is why the individual flower photographs can also be separated from the book block, which is protected by a translucent plastic cover into which a small signed Polaroid image of the famous water lily pond is inserted.