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Flor Linckens
5 x Nature as a metaphor or symbol
In his 1757 tract ‘A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful’, the Irish politician, economist, and philosopher Edmund Burk eloquently wrote about the sublime, a term referring to a greatness beyond all possibility of calculation, measurement or imitation. He described a feeling of disquiet and devastation — for example, while looking at some form of overwhelming, majestic nature — as a form of "delightful" horror that transcends all beauty. He considered it the most powerful emotion that humans can experience. It is probably no coincidence that he released his work just before the outbreak of the Industrial Revolution, which took place roughly between 1760 and 1840 and would irreversibly change our relationship with nature. How do contemporary artists use nature in the broad sense to say something about the world, the human condition or climate change?
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Behind this abstract painting is an interesting material: For this series, the Spanish activist artist Cristina Lucas made use of the matter that makes up the human body, specifically twenty-six chemical elements that can be read in the material list: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, sodium, chlorine, magnesium, iron, fluorine, zinc, silicon, copper, iodine, chromium, selenium, nickel, boron, manganese, lithium, molybdenum, cobalt and collagen on panel, fluorite and magnesite stones. The viewer's realisation should be that we ultimately consist of the same elements as nature, which we seem to want to destroy with so much fervor. It is an equally wonderful and urgent call to enter into a healthier relationship with nature.
(Represented by counterboschvanvreden)
(Represented by counterboschvanvreden)
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The Mexican-born artist Luis Xertu shows that a painting does not have to be a static object, that it can live alongside you. In his often large paintings, Xertu uses real plants, which change colour over time. This gives the partly organic work a dynamic aspect and it can sometimes take years before that transformation is completed. You will see the leaves literally change from green to gold over time. Universal themes such as impermanence and the passage of time thus become an important part of the painting and it forms a parallel with our own finite existence. Xertu is actively looking for the beauty of this transformation. Aging is not only reflected in the use of materials, but also in the people he depicts. Because the backgrounds are almost black, it simultaneously creates a lack of depth and the suggestion of infinity in which the characters seem to slowly sink away. The dreamy and decorative images that Xertu depicts show us people in a relaxed position, almost still. Because the characters are almost naked, they nearly seem to blend in with nature.
(Represented by TORCH Gallery)
(Represented by TORCH Gallery)
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In her work, Dutch artist Charlotte Dumas centers the often ambivalent relationship between human beings and animals. We love some animals as pets (and attribute human traits to them) while eating other animals, or locking them up in zoos. Why do we adhere a certain value and/or specific properties to these species and what does that say about us as humans? And how does that complex relationship translate into interpersonal relationships? According to Dumas, the period prior to taking a photo is what adds weight to her work. It is about the context: she observes the animals carefully for a long time and in this way she becomes familiar with her subject. Her latest works include capturing a rare wild horse breed on the idyllic Japanese island of Yonaguni. She used her own daughters as models for that.
(Represented by andriesse eyck gallery)
(Represented by andriesse eyck gallery)
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At the moment you can see a series of large-scale works by the Dutch artist Zoro Feigl in the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam. The artist is fascinated by natural laws, transformation, energy and the ways in which people want to control nature. His works seem to defy all natural laws and he uses minimal resources to do so. He is always trying to understand the behaviour of a material in order to be able to check it. Imitation as a form of worship, but he also has a caveat. Feigl: “Humanity likes to place itself above or outside nature. But we are part of a larger whole, we cannot just rule over nature and its laws.” One of the central works in the solo exhibition in the museum is the gigantic installation 'Swarms'. The work consists of a gigantic horizontal circle that is attached to the ceiling and is covered with semi-transparent foil. Hundreds of small balls move gently to the rhythm of the movement, offering the viewer a visual cue that a flock of birds is flying overhead. Feigl spent eight years researching the movements of birds for this work. Due to the random but controlled movement of the balls, you always get to see a different configuration, just like in nature.
(Represented by FRED&FERRY)
(Represented by FRED&FERRY)
Marius Ritiu
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For this work, 'I Am a Glitch in the System (Sisyphus Part V)', the Transylvanian artist Marius Ritiu was inspired by the famous character Sisyphus, a figure from Greek mythology who was given a poetic punishment by Zeus: until infinity, he would have to roll a boulder up a hill only to see it fall back down, again and again. During one of his travels, the artist found a huge boulder that would form the starting point for an installation. He partially transmuted the work into a copper sculpture and placed the work upside down, imbuing the whole with an absurdist, disorienting and at the same time monumental effect. Copper is also extracted from rocks, with which Ritiu makes the circular cycle visible, in addition to the creative and destructive power and unpredictability of natural forces. At the same time, something's wrong with the notion of the rock turning into copper again, with which the artist symbolises a glitch in our anthropocentric system, in which man rules over nature.
(Represented by Ballroom Gallery)
(Represented by Ballroom Gallery)