A thought about places, memory and the nature that lives on among us.

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Sit on a sofa.
In an office in California, in a loft in Berlin, in a living room somewhere in the world.
Look around.
Screens, concrete, glass, voices, air conditioning.
Everything seems natural.

And then ask yourself a simple question:

What was here before you came?

Before the light was made of neon.
Before the floor was polished, the walls smoothed, the air filtered.
Who lived here?
What voices were here before language was invented?
Which paws touched this ground first?

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We build worlds without asking what we are building over.
But every room carries memories – even if they are invisible.
Beneath every office lies a piece of wilderness,
under every carpet a shadow of earth,
Under every sofa there may be the imprint of a paw that has long been forgotten.

And that is exactly the idea behind Brandhoek:
To bring the animals back into spaces they have long since lost.
Not to possess them – but to remind us.

An animal on a sofa is not a surreal contradiction.
It is a silent truth:
That nature has not disappeared.
She's just looking at us from another time.

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Perhaps this is what happens when you look at a Brandhoek painting:
You sit in the now – and suddenly you feel what came before.
You see the animal – and at the same time the place it once inhabited.
A piece of grass under glass.
A breath that remains.

Nature is not gone.
She is patient.
She waits.

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Brandhoek – 2025- Nevada

The past looks back at us. And we call it the present.

This work is from the current Brandhoek collection:

Wild Icons

The work embodies the silence of a place that has long since been transformed.
An echo remains between the light and the surface – barely audible, but noticeable.
You see the animal, but at the same time you sense the landscape it once roamed.
It is as if the image captures the moment when nature becomes memory.