WARMENHOVEN & VENDERBOS Blog » Art

Willy de Sauter | The essence of reality

W&V — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:30:08 +0000

Belgian artist Willy de Sauter creates fascinating work in the artistic tradition to which abstract art is the carrier and tool to represent the essence of reality. His artistic vocabulary can be characterized as a thorough abstraction of shapes and structures which are found back in nature, culture and architecture. He closely observes and analyses architecture or selected photographs and uses the results of these studies as a starting point to translate and transposition the existing form or structure into an abstract representation. In Willy de Sauter his oeuvre, places are reduced to non-places and associations with philosophy, visual art and architecture are fused into one general and open focus on culture.
At this moment Willy de Sauter has a solo exhibition at Phoebus gallery in Rotterdam , the Netherlands. The show will run until march 4, 2012.

Photos by: Willy de Sauter | Willy de Sauter website | Photo bottom: Isabelle Pateer | Phoebus Rotterdam

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Aristotle on art, conceptual layers and inner value

W&V — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:30:16 +0000

Quote about art from Greek philosopher Aristotle which can especially be considered as an early statement about conceptual art and design as it addresses directly the core principle of a conceptual design approach and the resulting physical product and its inner value, meaning and significance.

The Greek philosopher and polymath Aristotle was a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoölogy. Together with Plato and Plato’s teacher Socrates, Aristotle is one of the most important founding figures in Western philosophy.

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Tobias Rehberger | Sex and Friends

W&V — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:30:10 +0000

The work of Tobias his recent exhibition at the Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens in Belgium has now moved on and is on show at the Pilar Corrias Gallery in London. The show carries the title: Sex and Friends

Tobias his conceptual art installation set up at Pilar Corrias Gallery explores again the conflict between functionalism and aesthetics and again questions and plays with the notion of art and its various strategies. The main key element of this specific installation is transformation. This key element is not only linked to the change of the space itself but also to the transformation during a specific time frame and especially the transformation of the viewer, his/her behaviour and thoughts.

The series of sculptures in this installation seem abstract and find their “ghost-image” counterpart in the amorphous shadows they project on the walls. The art works transmit words and patterns onto the surfaces around them. The sculptures and their shadows are dynamic in a reversed way. They encourage the viewer to move and look at them from various perspectives. By doing that they shift and transform themselves. During brief moments of the day the shadows come together and form a “hidden” message. The visual message itself becomes less important as the event is basically already known and announced to the viewer who visits the gallery space, however what is important in this conceptual installation is that the upfront announced “hidden” feature/message does right away influence and transform the viewers behaviour and thoughts.

Sex and Friends is running until February 17, 2012 at Pilar Corrias Gallery, London.
You can read more about Tobias Rehberger and his work in this, this and this article on the Warmenhoven & Venderbos blog.

Photos by: Tobias Rehberger | Pilar Corrias Gallery

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Tokujin Yoshioka | Snow

W&V — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 13:17:29 +0000

Tokujin Yoshioka is a Japanese designer and artist who has worked under Shiro Kuramata and Issey Miyake and established his ow studio, Tokujin Yoshioka Design in 2000.
He created the installation called The Snow as part of the exhibition Sensing Nature at the Tokyo Mori Art museum last year. This spatial design made from artificial materials gives the viewer the sensation of experiencing light, snow, storms and other phenomena. Tokujin Yoshioka explores the potential future of design and how it will incorporate natural principles, effects and by integrating natural science technologies. His installation is similar to looking at or walking through a snowstorm. It is an expanded version of the original ‘snow’ which was exhibited in 1997.

Photos and video: Tokujin Yoshioka | Tokujin Yoshioka inc. website |

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Douglas Gordon | Exhibition | MMK Frankfurt

W&V — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 12:10:14 +0000

The oeuvre of Scottish conceptual artist Douglas Gordon comprises of films, large video installations, photographs, texts, sculptures and sound installations.
With his analyses of images drawn from the collective memory and everyday culture, Gordon exposes basic patterns of perception. Within this framework, his works often revolve around phenomena of duplication and reflection. Meanings of mirroring and fragmentation are also evoked on a formal level, for example in large scale film and video installations which are presented on two or more screens.

At this moment the Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main (MMK) is showing a major solo exhibition of the artist titled “Douglas Gordon”. The exhibition shows new pieces and prominent works of the past years and provides a concentrated and impressive overview of this multifaceted artist’s oeuvre. It will run untill the 25th March 2012.

In the below videos the artist and staff of the Museum explain more about the works.

Photos Douglas Gordon and MMK Frankfurt | Video top: Institut für Kunstdokumentation | Video bottom: MMK Frankfurt | MMK website

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Skate 1.0 | Conceptual art installation

W&V — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 12:30:43 +0000

Skate 1.0 is a conceptual sound and light installation by Electroland. Space, movement, context and virtual locations are the key words for this interesting installation. Skate 1.0 puts the viewer into an abstract virtual skateboard park. Skater sounds travel above, below, around and through the viewers and serve as a kind of portal for them. The sounds are a recognisable and approachable door for the audience, a door through which they can travel into the abstract conceptual layers of this work. The light links to both sides. It registers the virtual movement of the skaters and at the same time pushes the viewer beyond.

Videos and Photos by: Electroland | Electroland website

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Tsang Kin-wah | The Seven Seals

W&V — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:02:02 +0000

“The Seven Seals” is a work by Chinese contemporary artist Tsang Kin-Wah. It is a fascinating ongoing series of seven conceptual digital video art installations using texts and computer technology to show Tsang’s thoughts on various issues of the day. “The Seven Seals” draws its reference from various sources such as: existentialism, metaphysics and politics. With this work Tsang Kin-wah attempt to articulate the complex situation of the world and the dilemmas that people are facing while approaching “the end of the world”.

Animated phrases and short sentences appear, move and float, sometimes, like a murmur and sometimes like an admonition that reveals the nature of human beings and the changes of our emotions. Without a clear beginning or end, each installation in the “The Seven Seals” creates different cycles of text on continuous loops that appear to repeat without end; echoing the concept of “eternal recurrence” whereby all the issues and dilemmas of daily existence are seen perpetually recurring for an infinite number of fleeting instances, even though we recognize and are aware of them for a longer time.

Photos and videos from the The Fifth Seal installation which is part of the Seven Seals project.

Videos and Photos by: Tsang Kin-wah | Tsang Kin-wah website | Mori Art Museum, Tokyo

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Hiroshi Sugimoto | Colors of Shadow

W&V — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 13:27:08 +0000

Colors of Shadow is the first conceptual photo series which artist Hiroshi Sugimoto photographed in color and it shows his continuous interrogation of photography’s intrinsic nature; of light entering into a darkened or “dimmed chamber”, however, the light source remains out of view. The work is minimalist in nature. The photographic field is emptied of any superfluous detail, allowing stillness for meditation.
Colors of Shadow seems also to mirror the white cube, the gallery space, in its perpetual rhythm to lay bare its white walls to receive the work of art. Here the works reflect its surroundings; the detail is focused on what the viewer’s eye does not generally pay attention to. Brought into focus are the corners of the space, its ceiling and walls with different hues of whites due to the slightest alteration in lighting, and their cast shadows.

Subtle play of light and shadow as well as spatial composition are central in this work by artist Hiroshi Sugimoto. He explains it as following:

”I’ve learned many things from using my hands. While I’m still not sure about the nature of light—whether it’s waves or particles—I’ve learned something about shadows. Trying to devise a way of observing shadows, this project escalated into a major undertaking, requiring an entire hilltop penthouse in a Tokyo apartment. When surfaces receive light, the light effects vary according to the angle of exposure. Selecting three distinct angles—90°, 55°, and 35°—I had the walls surfaced using traditional Japanese shikkui (plaster finishing), which absorbs and reflects light most evenly. In the morning light, the shadows play freely over the surfaces, now appearing, now vanishing. On rainy days, they take on a deeper, more evocative cast. I’ve only just begun my observations, but already I’ve discovered a sublime variety in shadow hues.”

Photos from top to bottom:
Colors of shadow c1020
Colors of shadow c1031
Colors of shadow c1028
Colors of shadow c1023
Colors of shadow c1019

Photos by: Hiroshi Sugimoto | Hiroshi Sugimoto website | source: Marian Goodman Gallery

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Jesse Kanda | Dutch Wife

W&V — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 11:10:07 +0000

Dutch Wife is an experimental animated short film by London based graphic and motion designer Jesse Kanda. In this video he experimented with filmed footage of plant remains which floated around in a canal and a combination of various 3D models. The result is a fascinating experiment about distortion, liquid, transformation and the virtual human body.

Video: directed, animated and sountracked by Jesse Kanda | Photos by Jesse Kanda | Jesse Kanda website

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Body Pressure | Conceptual performance art by Bruce Nauman

W&V — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 11:30:32 +0000

Body Pressure is an art piece by Bruce Nauman from 1974 which basically is a mix between conceptual text art and performance art. The work invites the spectator to become the performer. The physical form of the work is a simple poster which serves more as an igniter as it gives the performers a set of typed out instructions for merging their bodies with an architectural surface. Body Pressure is, aside from the physical experience, also a mental journey which challenges the performers to think about the physical aspects and limitations of their own bodies and travel beyond these limitations in their minds.

Below follows the text of the poster:

Body Pressure

Press as much of the front surface of
your body (palms in or out, left or right cheek)
against the wall as possible.

Press very hard and concentrate.

Form an image of yourself (suppose you
had just stepped forward) on the
opposite side of the wall pressing
back against the wall very hard.

Press very hard and concentrate on the image pressing very hard.

(the image of pressing very hard)
press your front surface and back surface
toward each other and begin to ignore or
block the thickness of the wall. (remove
the wall)

Think how various parts of your body
press against the wall; which parts
touch and which do not.

Consider the parts of your back which
press against the wall; press hard and
feel how the front and back of your
body press together.

Concentrate on the tension in the muscles,
pain where bones meet, fleshy deformations that occur under pressure; consider
body hair, perspiration, odors (smells).

This may become a very erotic exercise.

Work by Bruce Nauman | Photos by Bruce Nauman, top: Friedrich Christian Flick Collection, centre: Jacob Birken

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