Willy de Sauter | The essence of reality

Posted on 01/02/2012 by W&V

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

Tobias Rehberger | Sex and Friends

Posted on 24/01/2012 by W&V

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

Douglas Gordon | Exhibition | MMK Frankfurt

Posted on 12/12/2011 by W&V

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

Skate 1.0 | Conceptual art installation

Posted on 08/11/2011 by W&V

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

Tsang Kin-wah | The Seven Seals

Posted on 17/10/2011 by W&V

“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.