Gardens are unnatural. Small or big, neglected or manicured with tall trees and abundance of flowers,
or even just weeds, they testify to human struggle with nature. Even the so-called natural gardens are
in fact unnatural human efforts. We make plants grow and bloom however, wherenever and whenever
we want, defying nature or natural forces. Ultimately, nature takes its course and transforms an
abandoned garden into a forest. Humans are merely passing through and our gardens eventually
disappear. The upmost marriage of nature with culture, the eternal dichotomy between nature and
culture, is most reflected in the garden. Always on the move, changing its shape and biology and ever
evolving within different scales of time: when weeds show their daily growth, when seasons blossom
trees and bear their fruits, within eras, when gardens become overgrown and disappear after decades
or even centuries of human care. What remains are botanical archaeologists to prove that a garden
once existed.

All cultures know gardens except in some nomadic or seafaring nations and Arctic climates where
plants won’t grow. From ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt to the courts of China and India, from the
formal French gardens and flowing British garden-parks to each small garden in any suburb, there are
innumerable types of gardens. Besides being a geographical and cultural phenomenon, within a
historical perspective the garden is also a philosophical construct. A metaphor, a symbol, a signifier –
for civilizations as for individuals – projecting and reflecting desires to define ourselves as
civilizations, and as individuals. It may be an image for utopia frozen in perfection, an ideal of repose
and harmony, or the perfect picture of human’s vain struggle to tame nature.

Xue Mu's "garden" is unlike any other. A real garden might have been the inspiration for the name of
her exhibition, it is nevertheless a metaphysical space for exploring multiple aspects related to human
nature and perceptual possibilities. Mu's garden is a conceptual space to experiment with and renew
our culturally embedded conventions and routines. It is not just a garden for pleasure, such as the
Garden of Eden, but a garden for inquiry. The title of her exhibition 'There Is A Garden', not the, my,
or our garden is not a coincidence. In Xue's perception there may be many gardens, each related to
either a different individual or whole civilization, each of them infinite and awaiting exploration.
There is a garden and will always be one for those who are perceptive and patient. It hovers at the
boundary of our consciousness, transcending daily experience, requiring an open-mindedness and a
dialectical worldview. Long after the artist has walked on, this garden it will remain as a floating
thought. For those open to her art it may stay as a sensible space beyond the boundaries of our
perception, nevertheless, with enough exactitude to be identified.

Human beings need a metaphorical garden to contemplate a different version of life beyond the
mundane. Xue Mu's work testifies to this process of contemplation; the garden, situated at the edge of
perception, leads to new experiences and imaginative visions of life. Life can be as fragile as a bubble
of soap, as captured in an instant in her photo-installation "Planetary Bath". Yet, the moment she
associates its imagery with the visuality of the universe, fragility and infinity coincide through beauty.
Just like humans and our gardens, they come and go, yet leaving harmonious signals in the infinite
cosmos. Through the inspiration of There is a Garden – somewhere in time, on earth or somewhere
else – Xue Mu invites us to explore the oddly beautiful cracks in our daily existence, awakening the
unconventional spaces sleeping in our daily perceptions, and the infinity of our vulnerable, finite
lives.

Louise O. Fresco
Amsterdam, August 2025