'Untitled' (#86), 2013

Imagine that you are living in the 17th century, and suddenly you are presented with the technological advances available today. Of course there would be all kinds of trivial problems you would instantly solve, such as your children’s pneumonia, the stinking cesspit at the back of your garden, reading a book after sundown, and the endless cabbage stew on your plate in the winter. There is one problem that you cannot solve so quickly, though. You love flowers; real, pure flowers. Their intense beauty is a delight to you, as is the bittersweet melancholy caused by their rapid decay. But the price of flowers is still unimaginably high. Assembling a bouquet would simply be beyond your financial scope. What do you do? Commission a master painter to make you a still life out of his catalogues? Or would you choose one of the radiant photographic still lifes by Bas Meeuws, composed out of the most wonderful flower photography, and leaping out at anyone entering the room?