WARMENHOVEN & VENDERBOS Blog » White

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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Zoom | Collection Spring Summer 2011

W&V — Mon, 16 May 2011 11:30:07 +0000

Summer whites | Style | Blouson with string closure: T 11-75emu-42 | tone in tone graphic | Wide skirt: S 11-62-42

WARMENHOVEN & VENDERBOS | Collection Spring|Summer 2011

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One Hundred and Eight | An interactive Art Installation

W&V — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 22:51:31 +0000

One Hundred and Eight is an interactive wall-mounted Installation created by the German artist and communication designer Nils Völker. He explores new ways of reproducing and visualizing data and information by creating artworks with the means of physical computing at the intersection of technology and art.

The art installation One Hundred and Eight interacts with the movement of the audience. As soon as a viewer comes close it instantly reacts by drawing back and tentatively following the movements of the observer. As long as he remains in a certain area in front of the installation it dynamically reacts to the viewers motion. Once it does no longer detect someone close it reorganizes itself after a while and gently restarts moving around in its autonomous pattern.

Photos and video: Nils Völker | Nils Völker website

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Naoko Yoshimoto | conceptual clothing sculptures

W&V — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 10:13:45 +0000

Silent voice | 300×240×45cm | used white clothes

Japanese artist Naoko Yoshimoto began her career studying psychology at the University of Kyoto but moved gradually after it more into art. Her main medium are clothing and textiles. She creates very interesting and strong conceptual sculptures and installations made from garments like for example dresses, tops and trousers.

In the early days as she began collecting these clothes she saw them a bit as symbols of the people living in the places where she met the clothes. She imagined the histories behind them. Touching these used garments, gave her the idea she gained a feeling for the memories of these people and their everyday lives which the garments used to touch, a feeling that could not be communicated by words. But after while this gave her an uneasy feeling as she realized that she could imagine the people and the everyday life of the place she visited, but that she could not directly touch them. There was a feeling of distance and uncertainties. These thoughts had great influence of her current work and made sure she shifted even more towards a conceptual approach in her work.

In some of her current works like for example ” silent voice”, “shadow portrait” or “history behind clothes” she removes the colour of garments by bleaching or uses white coloured garments and compresses and condenses these “white shaded” clothes and transforms them into building blocks for her conceptual sculptures. These works depict conventional as well as more abstract objects and give an interesting social commentary which is created by the medium and its carrier.

White coffin | 205×85×65cm | used white shirts

White coffin detail | 205×85×65cm | used white shirts

Shadow portrait | 40×640×12cm | used white clothes

White coffin | 205×85×65cm | used white shirts

Shadow portrait | 40×640×12cm | used white clothes

White coffin | 150×130×180cm | used white shirts

River of oblivion detail | bleached clothes

River of oblivion | bleached clothes

Photos Naoko Yoshimoto | conceptual clothing sculptures

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Zoom | layered contrasts in white and nude tones

W&V — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 10:16:21 +0000

Zoom | layered contrasts in white and nude tones

The melting of two different garment types into one piece results into a feminine double layered, mixed fabric top and skirt in cool summer white and nude tone.

Style | Top: T 10-60-34
Style | Skirt: S 10-78-34

WARMENHOVEN & VENDERBOS | Collection Spring /Summer 2010

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Barcode stripes: Spring / Summer 2010 collection

W&V — Wed, 19 May 2010 11:27:46 +0000

Barcode stripes and ”sized” double layers.

Photo top> style: Top: T 10-70-10, Skirt: S 10-80-10

Photo bottom> style: Top: T 10-68-10

WARMENHOVEN & VENDERBOS | Collection Spring /Summer 2010

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E.V. Day architectural clothing sculptures

W&V — Mon, 03 May 2010 13:47:23 +0000

Bride fight is an already older but still very unique and interesting installation by American artist E.V. Day (1967, New York). She Used heavy-duty fishing line and hardware to reassembled clothing items which where untangled into small pieces.

Taking as her subject an eruption in the traditional social fabric the idea of two “glowing” brides locked in mortal combat E.V. Day touches something dark in the American social unconscious. Her work does link to reality television shows about brides-to-be, like Bridezilla, where tension gets to a boiling-point because of all the planning and frustration. But although E.V. Day’s piece may trigger such fetishistic responses it is a work primarily characterized by the humor and anxiety that accompanies a transformation of tradition. Fierce but nonetheless liberating, Bride Fight feels more like the jouissance of exploded boundaries than the pathology of confined ones.

The bride fight installation developed from a series of installations called Exploding Couture, begun in 1999, in which Day suspended women’s dresses in space. For example, in Bombshell (1999), exhibited at the 2000 Whitney Biennial, Day took a piece of iconic attire (Marilyn Monroe’s white halter dress) and arranged it to feel as if the forces of the implied figure are so powerful that the garment literally blows off, as if outgrowing its stereotype.

The visual result of the works are extremely light sculptures with architectural features.

Photos: E.V. Day | Lever House, New York

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Melted dress

W&V — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 11:34:11 +0000

Zoom: Warmenhoven & Venderbos Collection Spring/Summer 2010

Merge and melt of two dress types into one piece, accentuated by colour contrast. The ”shadow area” between the shapes has been highlighted by translating it into a graphic stripe design. Leather string detail at collar. A futuristic look in a stylish feminine shape and cut.

Style: Dress: D 10-66-01

WARMENHOVEN & VENDERBOS | Collection Spring /Summer 2010

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Baptiste Debombourg: Turbo

W&V — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 13:05:42 +0000

The turbo wave of the 80′s left its mark on the industry and on the whole cultural situation in Western Europe. The sound effect gives sensation of real physical power. This music genre, which originated in the Balkans, and its impact are the inspiration for the work of Serbian artist Baptiste Debombourg. The music becomes a conceptual model of behaviour and is translated into wall deformed by the power of a musical wave. This installation is melted with the architecture of the surrounding space and so becomes part of it.

Photos: Baptiste Debombourg | Patricia Dorfmann Gallery Paris | Galerie HO Marseilles | Galerija10m2 Sarajevo

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Conceptual Art and Installations by Michael Johansson

W&V — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:06:46 +0000

In his conceptual installations and sculptures Michael Johansson puts the qualities from daily life objects in opposition to their field of application. By repetition, displacement of scale, and new function, he questions the receivers interpretations of the unique. The objects are frozen in their new shape - while the function is displayed, the functionality is taken away.

Michael Johansson about his work: “I am fascinated by flea markets. Walking around to find doubles of seemingly unique, though often useless, objects I have already purchased at another flea market, is not only an inquisitive activity for me but part of my working process. Despite the fact that I did not have any use for most of these objects in the first place, the unlikeliness of discovering them twice in two different places makes the desire for their possession irresistible. The unique and the unknown origin of the object increases my wish to own its double. The rules compelling me in selecting things at flea markets are also central to my art practice. Engaging directly with these objects, manipulating them, juxtaposing them against each other or representing them in a new context is my method of work. Through out my different explorations of the potentials of my collection of found and acquired things, one has been to free objects from their function. By forcing these objects into contexts in which their functional qualities are put into opposition with their field of application, the objects are stripped of their meaning for existence. In a series of work I have assembled objects connected to a certain place, for example a kitchen or a living room, into a cubic geometrical unit. The collected items, originally gathered from hundreds of different homes, are precisely stacked into the empty spaces of other larger items, a process that repeats itself until all the objects are carefully packed into one single tight sculptural form. This transformation addresses questions about history, life and space. The sculptures hold stories of compressed worlds from a time gone by, and the function has been forced to give in for the notions of color and shape.”

Photos Michael Johansson | Conceptual art and installations

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