In Renate Bertlmann’s 'Procession No. 7' (1998), a cascade of larger-than-life red roses floats on found fabric. The symbol of the soft and sensual rose has often been deployed by Bertlmann for its association with a stereotyped idea of femininity. As the curator Beatriz Colomina points out in relation to Bertlmann’s work, “gardens are never innocent. Formal gardens are traditionally the very image of femininity, controlled.”

After a hiatus of twenty years, the symbol of the rose most recently returned in Bertlmann’s work with her powerful Murano glass installation of roses for the Austrian Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale. The “roses” of her garden turned every expectation upside down, armed with dangerously sharp metal blades, they were both beautiful and lethal.