Le Jardin Caché – INSTALLATION – Isabel Judez & Plural studio+compagnie

L E
J A R D I N
C A C H E

2018, Sculpture
Isabel Judez, Alejandra Pernalete and Javiera San Martin
Nylon theards and Steel
Dimensions : description bellow

Personal Art exhibition for Not Common Girls art collective
2019 at Allegro Gallery, Panama

Excerpt :

Le Jardin Caché, a sculptural series of nine textile works, critically explores femininity through the interplay of organic and geometric forms. In collaboration with Flora Lab, natural plant elements juxtapose the synthetic materials, symbolizing the tension between nature and cultural constructs of gender. The series challenges traditional views of women’s creative labor, blending light, shadow, and materiality to question the social perceptions and subconscious projections of femininity.

This sculptural series, Le Jardin Caché, engages with the complex semiotics of femininity by creating a symbolic garden of nine textile works. Presented at the Allegro Gallery, the installation aims to immerse the viewer in a space where nature, art, and the gendered body converge. Through collaboration with Flora Lab, the artists introduce plant elements sourced from the tropical forest, thus entering into a critical dialogue between the natural world and the materiality of textile art. This juxtaposition of the organic and geometric forms serves as a visual and conceptual metaphor for the tension between the constructed and essentialized images of femininity.

Drawing on feminist art history, the installation subverts the traditional associations between women, nature, and domestic craft. The contrast between synthetic and natural materials echoes the historical relegation of women’s creative labor to the domestic and decorative spheres, yet here, it is reclaimed and reconfigured within a contemporary artistic context. The three-dimensional interplay of light and shadow further evokes the psychological undercurrents that shape how we perceive and project femininity, pointing to the role of the subconscious in the cultural construction of gender.

By foregrounding the organic through natural flora while simultaneously incorporating the artificial, this series reflects on the layered complexities of femininity—both as a lived experience and as a cultural construct. In doing so, Le Jardin Caché not only challenges the aesthetic conventions of art but also interrogates the broader socio-political structures that shape how femininity is visualized, experienced, and controlled within patriarchal society. Through this critical lens, the work invites the viewer to reconsider the dynamic relationship between nature, the body, and the social inscriptions of gender.