“The Garden” Transforms Sketch Mayfair into a Surreal Allegory
A contemporary parable unfolds in LUAP’s new commissioned work, “The Garden”
In his latest commissioned work, LUAP transforms the famed interiors of Sketch Mayfair into a stage for a contemporary parable. Titled The Garden, the large-scale photographic tableau draws from the rich allegorical language of Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights and recasts it through a modern lens, populated by the absurd, the seductive and the surreal.
The scene is filled with uncanny figures — some masked as animals, others caught mid-gesture, caught in states of indulgence and abandon. Apples are eaten, glances exchanged, rituals implied. At the centre stands the Pink Bear, not as an outsider but as an enigmatic presence within the dream. Playful yet solemn, he is a totem of curiosity, vulnerability, and silent observation.
Photographed in the liminal hours before Sketch opened its doors, The Garden captures a fleeting world — one where beauty and chaos coexist, where theatrical excess gives way to introspection. LUAP’s use of light, pattern, and gesture creates a stillness within the spectacle — inviting viewers to look closer, to question.
“There’s a moment in Bosch’s painting where joy and decay exist side by side,” LUAP reflects. “That’s what I wanted to explore — not judgement, but a reflection of desire in all its complexity.”
This is not a utopia, nor a cautionary tale. It is something more ambiguous — a mirror held to modern rituals, to the need for spectacle, to our endless search for meaning. The characters, drawn from a wide creative community, slip between fantasy and archetype. Identity is blurred. Every figure performs and reflects something larger than itself.
As in all of LUAP’s work, the Pink Bear remains both protagonist and witness — a symbol of continuity in a scene unmoored by excess and longing.
CREATIVE DIRECTION - Paul Robinson
PHOTOGRAPHY - Paul Robinson
MODELS - Vanessa Von Tain, Louise Thompson, Irena Myasnikova, Agnes, Jo Rogers, Bella Thoren, Margarita Chvertko, Yannah Tsvetkova, Yasmin Alexiou, Lisa Nash, Aysha Bell, Reiss Paul Stygal, Stephen Russell, Tim, Pixie, Amee Syeda, Ralph Bogard
MAKEUP - Anna Jadwiga Cichon, Margarida Marinho, Jessica Dee, Saskia Noikh, Sarah Hubbauer, Holly Jane Reza Westwood, Michelle Court
HAIR - Zara Vernazza, Pascal Lombardo
STYLIST - Anastasia Andrew
DESIGNERS - Deborah Brand, Gosia Wolinska, Cindy Zhang, Dead Lotus Couture
COSTUMES - Paul Robinson, Paul Cummings
CHOREOGRAPHY - Paul Cummings
LIFE MODELS - Peter Mitchell, Sarah Lowndes, Richard Worral, Sharon Smithers, Toni Ashcroft
ASSISTANTS - Rick Sleiman, Dawid Plachta
VIDEO - Niccolò Rizzini