In Expectations, the tall, pierced pergola-like structure gives suggestions of ecclesiastical, Moorish or mosque-like architecture. Wide open arches are demarcated by a thin, lattice-like structure which replicate silhouetted, stylised palm trees; the opening at the top which is open to the sky has a cut-out quality which again suggests the branches of a palm tree in which the space becomes the branches; the central turned strut is shaped like the trunk of a palm tree which opens up geometrically into a canopy of space. The shape of the open apex is reminiscent of both palm tree and lotus-flower.

A lone, vibrantly green palm tree grows out of the green land in the distance which appears to be a landscape but also a seascape. The round, red-brown circular structure on which the pergola stands appears like a haven, an oasis, in the sea of green which is a green desert or a green sea, so that the oasis also becomes a desert island. The vibrant green and yellow on the horizon appears hopeful: a sign of, hope for or expectations of better things to come. A disembodied, shell-like, white nightgown floats freely at the base of the pergola at the bottom of the painting and the viewer senses that it will rise (like a dream) up through the open architecture where it will be released into the atmosphere and the endless sky.

As with much of Orlik’s work, objects in his paintings connect and raise associations in the imagination and the memory and create links between his own works so that the object becomes a symbol that he uses again and again. In Expectations the use of the shell-like nightgown references his painting Dream in which a fish-tail protrudes from the floating gown. The title of this painting, Expectations, suggests a connection with Charles Dicken’s novel Great Expectations which follows the life of Pip and his own expectations. One of the most famous and haunting characters in the novel is Miss Haversham who sits in her room dressed in her white wedding dress having been left at the altar; her dreams are thwarted and unfulfilled. The dress, then, may also act as a warning, becoming a symbol for expectations which when not achieved become dreams floating adrift and unrealised.