The artistic practice of Duna Rolando has been profoundly influenced by the series Sehnsucht nach Leben (FLORA), initiated around 2010. In this body of work, the artist establishes a connection with painted plants and flowers as a form of refuge from everyday life: a personal paradise where pain, fear, and material needs do not exist. The series functions as a metaphor for life cycles—birth, reproduction, and death—and as a search for connection with natural beauty, life, and the will to live.
You can’t force a plant to bloom. It has a cycle.
You have to tend it and care for it and wait for the bloom to happen. If you don’t take care of it, it dies. The more experiences you have like this, the more you begin to understand your own cycle. R.A.