Of Nature, Men and Androids.
At UNSEEN 2023 Art Gallery O-68 presents artists Louise te Poele (1984), Maaike Kramer (1986), Wanda Tuerlinckx (1969) and Daphne van de Velde (1973), artists who transcend the limitations of the photographic medium.
Louise te Poele wonders: 'how flexible is the world?' As flexible as the mind? Nature and natural phenomena, such as gravity and reflections, are important elements/themes for her. Her more abstract works are about gravity and her desire for weightlessness. They are also the starting points for her spatial figurative work. She builds worlds with animals, plants and man-made objects. The creatures and objects in each work belong together. How do we deal with living creatures and man-made objects?
Maaike Kramer uses architectural forms and materials as a metaphor for mental spaces and constructs. During making, there are several phase transitions between thinking and making. By combining monumental visual language with a sketchy visual language, she creates constructions that, in addition to monumentality, also contain doubt and reflection. Photography is a way of capturing a fleeting moment or determining perspective. Kramer uses photography as a moment of reflection in the process, freeze time with it, but then also shows it in the final work in the form of transparently cast photos.
Wanda Tuerlinckx photographs android robots. By using as photographic medium a process in which unique prints are made on photosynthetic material from nature, chlorophyll prints, the robots enter into a relationship with nature. This creates a contrast between the digital and organic worlds, while at the same time enhancing the magic of nature. A unique 'greening' that unites the futuristic and the biological, code and nature. We show here: Ai-Da, Harmony, Bina48, Sophia, AndroidU and Otonaroid as chlorophyl prints.
Daphne van de Velde is a multimedia artist, adding further dimensionality to the experience and transcending the limitations of the photographic medium. The language of her work can be described as ‘Making the skin physically tangible, the body's border with the outside world and the other’. She visualizes how we increasingly use our skin to prevent the intimate from coming out, or to prevent the other from coming in. Vulnerable physical reactions become hidden under polished screen layers. In her work, she makes these physical reactions visible and palpable again. The body becomes an image and the image becomes the body in her work.