Julia Platt's latest project largely centers on her twin sister, yet it appears almost incidental. Unlike her earlier series, the artist avoids self-portraits, gazing outwards exclusively instead. Standing by the wall, on balcony or terrace overlooking a garden, she captures nature and still life in the foreground. It is summertime, and she’s spending it at her family home with her introspective, tense, and preoccupied sister. This is the slice of life we witness. Like Jack Nicholson in Chinatown, tracing a summer romance, we encounter not tranquility but a fire, an understatement, or mystery at best.

Hereby we have the Strange Garden, inspired by Józef Mehoffer’s famous painting. However, in place of the dragonfly (ważka) at the center, a clothes horse – called raszka in Poznań dialect – spreads its wings. A glimpse of the artist’s knee, the sole indication of her presence throughout the series, also evokes Mehoffer's dragonfly, with its Jugendstil colorfulness, resembling an insect's head. Both sisters anxiously await the end of summer. Despite the outdoor scenery, there is a sense of claustrophobia, a recurring element in the artist’s work. The horizon is not visible, the world made intentionally small, intimate, and manageable. The surroundings never overwhelm the sisters; being scaled down to human dimensions.

The picturesque pile of objects in the Holidays also awaits the summer’s end. Although the composition is set on a Polish terrace, there’s something Mediterranean about the stoneware, the earthenware, and the distinct plasterwork. The dolce far niente of these objects is accentuated by soft pink light, the sunset perhaps. Once the sisters return to the city, the seeming idyllic randomness of that scene will inevitably be disturbed.

The sun plays an important role in most of the paintings. Its glare makes Julia’s sister squint all the time, diverting her eyes from the world outside to her inside. Despite this outward turn in the artist’s work, a sense of apprehension is palpable. The Storm is just an excuse fair enough to retreat indoors, while both still and animated lives continue to serve as metaphors for the artist's inner world.