Michelle Van Eimeren’s solo exhibition Imbue transforms CBD Gallery into a living, breathing extension of the natural world. Dried reeds fill the gallery windows and climb the stairs – wild, unruly and full of quiet movement. Their presence echoes the gentle hues that bloom from silk-entwined flowers, setting the tone for an exhibition that is both intimate and immersive.
As if shadows of plants have been gently caught and held by silk, Van Eimeren’s works are ghostly impressions of the natural world, delicate traces suspended in time. As you step closer, faint flushes of colour and botanical forms begin to emerge, revealing themselves slowly through the soft, creased fabric. The works unfold as meditations on memory, fragility and the interventions we make in our relationship with nature.
Van Emieren works intimately with her environment, foraging plant materials from the world around her. Guided by the changing seasons, her experiments capture fleeting moments of beauty as ghostly spectres. This slow, intuitive process becomes a meditation – an invitation to stillness, reflection and discovery. Toned down in soft, natural hues, her prints speak in a hush. They capture the essence of nature – imprinted within the silk are leaves contorting, branches spiralling and petals frozen in time.
Seemingly spontaneous yet deeply considered, Van Emieren’s compositions reveal an attentiveness to natural processes. In Delphinium, strands of grasses and reeds appear to sway within the silk, punctuated by bursts of vivid blue flowers. Smokehaze’s dark clutter of leaves, imprinted within a cloud of smog and leaves evokes the chaos and aftermath of a bushfire that’s captured and held tight within the wispy silk frame.
As if seared into the fabric, these impressions evoke memories – moments of life made visible through the delicate interplay of material and time. Bright orange bark and leaves, stained by natural tannins, mingle with faint greens and purples drawn from flowers, bathing the gallery in an atmosphere of reverence and contemplation.
Her work envelops the gallery space, creating a sanctuary, a place where the outer natural world and the inner emotional one converges. The silk, at once fragile and enduring, holds the subtle presence of lives witnessed and remembered, offering a tribute to those who have moved through intricate emotional terrains.
In Imbue, Michelle Van Eimeren offers more than an exhibition, she cultivates a space of stillness and sensory attunement, where nature is not simply represented but felt. Through her handling of materials and intuitive process, she captures what is often overlooked: the traces, shadows and echoes of the natural world. These works are not loud declarations, but invitations to pause, to notice, to remember. In their fragility, they hold strength – in their abstraction, a deep emotional clarity.
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Imbue leaves the viewer with the sense that even the most ephemeral moments can leave lasting impressions, like the brush of a leaf or the flicker of a memory.
Michelle Van Eimeren’s solo exhibition, Imbue, will be exhibited until 12 July 2025 at CBD Gallery, Sydney.
