The Flower Makes You Different

Kasper Bosmans’ art operates like symbolic tarot readings — poetic, coded, and layered with historical, folkloric, and personal meanings. His Legends series serves as his own set of open-ended tarot cards, drawing from diverse cultural sources. While some works are deliberately ambiguous, others focus on queer, domestic, and craft-based experiences, celebrating traditionally feminized labor. For instance, his sand patterns reimagine the Belgian tradition of zandtapijt, inspired by his great-grandmother’s decorative sand drawings, blending personal heritage with broader symbolic references.

In his exhibition “The Flower Makes You Different” in Zuoz, Bosmans combines materials such as sand, enamel, and woven textiles. The show includes wall weavings of turtles and donkeys, drawings in vivid wood frames, murals, and small Legends paintings on panels. The title references Apuleius’ Metamorphoses (The Golden Ass), where transformation through the rose symbolizes queerness—the fluidity of identity and resistance to fixed categories. Eyes appearing throughout the exhibition evoke the tension of being seen and judged within these systems.

Bosmans’ works balance discomfort and hope: in Walking on Warm Eggs, the eye symbolizes caution and inquiry, referencing Leonardo da Vinci’s anatomical studies. Motifs of roses recur as emblems of metamorphosis and queer potential. Murals of feet in sandals suggest desire and anonymity, while woven images of a donkey among roses and a jeweled turtle caught in a spider web allude to decadent transformation and collection. Through these interwoven myths, Bosmans reframes history with queer tenderness, curiosity, and care.