Michiel Kluiters (1971) built up a career in exploring the illusion of space and depth in photographic images.
In his earlier work he produced wall filling photographs that created the suggestion of opening up new spaces in existing ones. A beautiful example of this is the installation Room I, II and III which he created for the exhibition Phantom Limb at the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden (2018). Architectural interventions that were built on the illusory character of photographic images, but as such did not address directly the spatial characteristics of photography itself.
In his recent works, Kluiters examines in more detail how space (or spatiality) in photography works. These images are generally smaller than the large installations that he made previously, but they are still produced in a similar matter. They are photographs of models that he builds in his studio. Recent works depict impossible or at least unexpected spaces. Walls are standing askew, creating strange, impossible doorways, giving the sensation of being built by an architect who has lost his mind. The structures are roughly painted, which gives them a very specific texture, others seem sprayed with different colors, giving the sensation of being only halfway realized. Although each image has at least one opening in the wall that rises up in front of us, they exude a feeling of confinement. Each opening is a void leading us nowhere. The spaces that unfold before our eyes look convincingly real, yet impractical or, at least unlivable. It is intriguing how to unpack these spatial riddles.
Simo Tse (1984 Australia) is a graphic designer, artist and an independent researcher. He is currently based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. His work ‘Living in a Blur’ is a12-channel video installation about how home confinement has collapsed one’s assumptions of spatiality and one’s sense of time. If sight is separated from body, what one could see is a still figure, slumping on a chair, with fast typing fingers. Intruded by a global pandemic, all kinds of sociability have been moved online, whilst the feeling of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) continues. Using the webcam and the video conferencing application as portals, our bodies as props, and our rooms as scenography, Living in a Blur is an audio-visual hybrid of workout-from-home and ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) videos for those who suffer from productivity anxiety.
Inge Schoutsen:
In every image I try to embody an atmosphere of tender tranquillity. Every image should be an ode to the casual familiarity of everyday things.
A photo is suggestion, so I aim to let that work in my work. The suggestion can be provoked by form, by making a loose and ordinary photo and by making use of all kinds of printmaking techniques. To give the photo a particular quality, the holding capacity needs to be as specific as it can be. By putting emphasis on the printed material, I intend to give my images universal meaning