In Face to Face (1978) by Christiaan Bastiaans, a man lies in a natural setting while slowly covering himself with layers of clay. Gradually, his body merges with the landscape – the clay’s color echoing the leaves around him. A small mirror covering his mouth reflects the surrounding environment, offering a glimpse of the world that simultaneously conceals and absorbs him. His gesture is modest, almost humble, yet unfolds as a quiet and profound transformation. Human figure and surroundings become indistinguishable, forming an image of transience that evokes death as much as continuity. The mirror here suggests a paradoxical return. Even as the body disappears, the world is reflected back, as if life persists through what remains both visible and unseen. The man effaces himself until he is no longer a subject inhabiting nature, but a surface reflecting its image. In this way, the work explores interrelatedness and the possibility of becoming one with the natural world.
Rosebud #17 is presented alongside the exhibition Melted for Love, in which grief, memory, ancestral knowledge, and our relationship to nature emerge as central concerns.