CONSTANT TRANSIENCE
EXHIBITION
SEPTEMBER 2024 - AMSTERDAM
CURATED BY RODERICK VAN DER LEE
In the humdrum of our busy, daily lives we rarely seem to be able to find the time to stop and smell the roses. Even if we do, such moments are fleeting. Yet mankind has always placed precious value on those kind of short-lived moments, where the world around us seems to disappear for a moment, and the beating pulse of the world momentarily quiets down. Paradoxically, those transient moments, are often experienced within specific settings that remain constant over time: nature, the horizon on the sea, a church or even within the constant mechanics of the world. In this exhibition, we invite you to behold, contemplate, and perhaps even experience such moments of transience, through the eyes of 8 artist, whose work stretches the fabric of photography and perhaps the notion of how we can experience time and consciousness.
Joost Vandebrug
MOMENT / TIME
2024
8 SCREEN VIDEO INSTALLATION
Joost Vandebrug's video installation "Moment / Time" examines the transient nature of existence. Inspired by Heraclitus' concept that "you can never step into the same river twice", the work features eight vertically positioned video screens, each displaying a unique seascape. Despite their individuality , the screens horizontally align to create a continuous horizon that stretches acroos the installation, suggesting the subtle continuity that connects moments in time.
This arrangements underscores the themes of impermanence and transformation in both nature and human experience. By capturing the sea's infinite variability, the installation mirrors the multifaceted nature of recollections and memory - how moments can be both faithful and altered over time. Vandebrug's work intertwines these transient scenes into a unified flow, illustrating the ceaseless movement and interconnection of change.
Each of the 8 screens features a unique mono audio fragment with distinct pitch, tempo and sound. When played together, these fragments create spatial, infinite, aleatory composition - constantly evolving yeat consistently similar. The score is composed by Jeroen de Pessemier.
Atong Atem
A FACET FOR EVERY TURN
2023
6 SILK GEORGETTE FABRIC PANEL INSTALLATION
A Facet for Every Turn is a series of large-scale portraits printed on high-quality silk, honouring traditional craft traditions. Atem’s photographic practice reflects her engagement with familial archives and the role of documenting and archiving in identity.
Drawing on the history of 20th century African studio photography, Atem’s staged portraiture draws on her rich postcolonial visual language. Atem questions ‘Australian’ identity by subverting the colonial overtones of portraiture and gaze in photographic history, entirely redefining the lens. In this work, Atem reflects on her ancestral story, migration and the history of the African diaspora in Australia.
Using portraiture, textile and family archives to create her own familial history, this work reflects an ancestral story of migration while interrogating the history of photography itself. A Facet for Every Turn was commissioned for Portrait:23 for the National Portrait Gallery, Australia.
The installation plays with the notion of the transient nature of culture, people and tradition and their migration, caught in time and place by photography.
Adam Magyar
MATTER
2022
DOUBLE CHANNEL VIDEO INSTALLATION
Adam Magyar explores the elusive concept of time through his artistic practice. Delving into humanity's relationship with past, future and present moments, he contemplates the use and occasional waste of time. His fascination lies in the subjective experience of time, including the weight of memories, the uncertainty of the future, the loneliness of the present, and reflections on mortality. Magyar especially admires moments in which time seems suspended, fostering a sense of unity in existence.
In his series, MATTER, Magyar navigates the complexities of cause and effect, seeking to find a fluid analogue within urban environments. Through video and photography, he captures urban landscapes from constant perspectives, fusing days and moments to reveal the passage of time and the transitory nature of human memories. In his works, time becomes tangible, demonstrating a visible journey where limits dissolve and permanence fades.
Amid this visual exploration, Magyar emphasises the unwavering continuity of traffic lights, which serve as symbols of persistence in a world that would otherwise be in constant flux.
Quintus Glerum
KIKI'S WONDERFUL LITTLE WORLDS
2024
MIXED TECHNIQUE OBJECTS: PLASTIC, METAL, ELECTRONICS
Glerum’s work moves between the realms of virtuality and physicality, and thrives on all the processes which transform data into information. Amongst a vast array of devices used to set up his installations, Glerum’s main tool is the computer, while the extraction of data, and the processing, storing and displaying of information are key concerns. The comparison between human and machine is underpinned by a cognitive understanding, recognizing the peculiarity of being human in how we handle information. Glerum’s work offers situations to reflect on what it means to be human when our image is mirrored by the gaze of machines.
The works relate to the concept of photography in its literal meaning of ‘drawing with light’ and mirrors the transience of life itself in the sense that if we pull the plug, the ephemeral light disappears instantly and we are left with the emptiness of the hardware, as a shell without it’s ghost.
Stijn Elshuis
IN THE ABSENCE OF TIME
2023
MIXED MEDIA: PHOTOPRINT. CONSTRUCTION WOOD, IRON, TINDER FUNGUS
Stijn Elshuis is a multimedia artist working predominantly with sculpture and photography that explores the ways in which we deal with History. His works are experimental arrangements that draw attention to the difficulties posed by the concept of history, with the aim of broadening our view of the times in which we live. To this end, he examines history, anthropology, philosophy and images found in archives, the media and in the public space and distils them into assemblages reflecting on history and the socio-political discourse.
In his work, he wonders what role nature will play and what changes can, and will, take place within nature and what forms this nature might take on. Nature seems to be opposite of technology, the rapidly changing technology versus the slowly evolving nature. Nature that plays an important role in our shared history through the great stories and fairy tales, through our dependence and our struggle to control it.
‘In the Absence of Time’ plays with the notion of the impossibility of permanence in the face of the eternal forces of time and nature. While the classical sculptural pieces allude to some sense of endurance, the blurry photographic documentation evokes an uneasy sense of inability to retain their essence sharply. On top of that, quite literally and figuratively, the fungi eat away at the image even further, reminding us that nothing can remain and in the long run, everything is transient.
Maciej Urbanek
GARBAGE BAROQUE
2024
MIXED MEDIA INSTALLATION: PHOTOPRINT, PLASTIC
Maciej Urbanek’s work starts as large-scale sculptural reliefs made of black plastic garbage bags. The artist pulls, stretches and crumples the bags on a wall in an abstract, expressionist way and then shines a coloured light onto them. He subsequently photographs these installations, and cuts the images up digitally to use the fragments to create symmetrical or kaleidoscopic patterns.
The installation shows dark garbage plastic flowing down. In front of it we see a kaleidoscopic sun, patterned and warmly lit. There is a contrast between dark and light, cold and warm, and chaos and sacred order, which is symbolic for the two outer ends of the spectrum we seem to experience in our existence.
Moments where we feel there is a sense of beautiful order, where there is light and warmth, are rare and ephemeral; but such luminous moments guide us through the darkness.
Photographically speaking, the work shows how the use of light and arrangement can make all the difference when using the same source material. Humanly speaking, it shows us that we are able to create and capture such moments of light, warmth and order, using the material of a dark, cold and chaotic universe
Jackie Mulder
THOUGHT TRAILS
ONGOING (2024)
MIXED MEDIA: PHOTOGRAPHY ON TEXTILE< HANDCOLORING AND STITCHING
Jackie Mulder’s work is about how the brain works when we let our minds wander. The mind randomly switches between past and present, jumping back and forth between blurry and razor-sharp, making fascinating connections. The brain blocks certain memories and fills in the blanks with the power of the imagination. This allows us to manipulate the world around us as we see it.
Mulder deconstructs and reconnects her images by stitching and pasting to create a new, layered reality. She uses the irregularity of the wire to draw with it like a pencil meandering across the image. The thread connects and separates as an abstraction for a life of memories, searching and thinking. She uses different techniques such as charcoal, stitching, beeswax, parts from old books, ink and paint to hide and accentuate. All her works are unique pieces and are characterized by their tactility.
In a contemplative process created by repetitive handicrafts, she creates her own world, calms her mind and repair what is damaged.
The landscapes are literally and figuratively layered, and, within this large installation, welcome us to wander through them, with each new view inviting us to ponder, reflect and investigate the abstract interventions within the figurative landscapes on a conscious or subconscious level.
Lynne Leegte
LA CATHEDRALE ENGLOUTIE
2024
PHOTOGRAPHY ON VOILE INSTALLATION
The spatial installation consists of 5 large photographic prints on voile of church windows, which are true to size, and placed within the shape of a ‘transept’, the space where these windows would also be placed in a church. Such windows were designed to dramatically let light enter the church, as if it were the glorious benevolence of the almighty himself, engulfing the beholder.
In that sense, it is a form of ‘drawing with light’ or at least using the staged effect of light in a meaningful and symbolic manner. The dramatic effect is enhanced by the dark surroundings, which suggests a moment of connection with the divine: nothing exists except the personal perception of Godly presence. The simplicity and symmetry evokes a serene stillness, which invites to contemplate.
In Lynne Leegte’s work there is always an omnipresent timeless tranquility, a sense of reflection and a feeling of melancholy that prevails. Her themes revolve around transience and death, but also touch the spheres of consolation and fleeting beauty.
