What was here before you came?

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 you.
Screens, concrete, glass, voices, air conditioning.
Everything seems natural.

And then ask yourself a simple question:

What was here before you came?

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

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

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

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

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Perhaps this is what happens when you look at a Brandhoek painting:
You're sitting in the present – ​​and suddenly you feel what came before.
You can see the animal – and at the same time the place it once inhabited.
A piece of grass under glass.
A breath that has remained.

Nature hasn't gone away.
She is patient.
She is waiting.

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Brandhoek – 2025 – Nevada

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

This work is from the current Brandhoek collection:

Wild Beauties of Europe & America

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