19.01.23 – 29.01.23, #138: Wave, Anders Herrebaut & Rut Buelens

White picket fence: a typical family, a typical house, typical actions. What happens if these typicality’s were broken or forgotten?

Two unlikely image-worlds are brought together: the staged American nuclear-test families and the simplified domestic scenes found in children’s drawings. Both operate as fictions – idealized models of family life rehearsed rather than lived.Within the fragile structure of the cardboard house, fragments of this script unfold. These are not moments of intimacy, but the residue of gestures remembered from elsewhere.What follows is not collapse, nor the emergence of a new narrative. Bodies keep rehearsing, as if repetition alone might hold the fiction together.

De tentoonstelling FROM WHERE WE GROW van Clair Bravo & Noé Znidarsic brengt twee fotografische benaderingen samen die de constructie van identiteit in hun praktijk onderzoeken aan de hand van hun respectieve ervaringen.

In hun lopende werk Where We Bloom onderzoekt Clair Bravo queer plattelandsgemeenschappen en de manieren waarop queer mensen plattelandsgebieden in Frankrijk bewonen, navigeren en transformeren. Aan de hand van portretten, landschappen en documentaire fragmenten reflecteert het project op verbondenheid, zichtbaarheid en hoe queer aanwezigheid omgevingen hervormt die vaak als conservatief of heteronormatief worden beschouwd. Het werk is geworteld in een landelijk perspectief dat is gevormd door hun eigen opvoeding en stelt de vraag wat het betekent om queer te zijn buiten de stadsmuren, hoe queer levens wortel schieten, zich ontvouwen en standhouden op plaatsen waar ze vaak over het hoofd worden gezien. De reeks analoge beelden biedt een zachte cartografie van queer aanwezigheid op het platteland. Tijdens een reis van drie maanden raakte Bravo hecht met de mensen die die ontmoette. Kennismakend met een breed scala aan verwantschapspraktijken werd er vaak en hartelijk gelachen, de tijd vertraagd en werden elkeaar twijfels, zorgen en zorgzaamheid toevertrouwd.

In MODEL CARD onderzoekt Noé Znidarsic de tijdelijkheid van de modewereld, door te focussen op momenten die vaak aan de collectieve verbeelding ontsnappen: de pauzes backstage tussen fittings, de stilte in castingruimtes, het schijnbaar eindeloze wachten. Deze tussenmomenten onthullen een andere kant van het modellenwerk, een kant die zich verzet tegen spektakel en glamour. Het project eigent zich de ambigue vorm van de modelkaart toe en ondermijnt deze, ook wel ‘composite’ genoemd in het Frans. Traditioneel dient dit object zowel als professionele identiteitskaart als promotiemiddel, ontworpen om klanten aan te trekken door middel van gestandaardiseerde informatie: lengte, maten, haarkleur, enzovoort. Gereduceerd tot een formule wordt het lichaam data – een oppervlak om te consumeren. Door dit formaat te herwerken, verschuift MODEL CARD van een oorspronkelijke utilitaire functie en stelt het de structuren zelf in vraag die het leven van jonge modellen bepalen. “In this continuity, the project establishes a link with the portraits and images I have produced over the past years, deliberately replaying the same visual schemes as those of traditional model cards” Het zijn van een “model” – een term afgeleid van het Latijnse modulus, een verkleinwoord van modus (maat, norm) – wordt zo een gebied van omkering. Door vervolgens mensen die niet langer deel uitmaken van de industrie opnieuw te introduceren, stelt het project een alternatieve lezing van het afgebeelde lichaam voor: een lichaam dat niet langer louter een oppervlak is voor gestandaardiseerde projectie, maar een lichaam dat de mechanismen van representatie en de standaardisatie van schoonheid blootlegt en onthult.

Samen nodigen deze twee werken de kijkers uit om na te denken over hoe identiteit, gemeenschap en zelfexpressie worden geconstrueerd en uitgevoerd, en hoe ruimtes – of het nu landelijke landschappen of modewerelden zijn – worden hervormd door degenen die er wonen.

Much like the submersed swimming tunnels constructed for aquariums, permitting human guests to freely yet curiously peruse a vivid enclosure beneath teeming spectacles of sea life (fish, vegetation, beams of sunlight), & Kasquarium* homages that iconic tourist passageway design in our own Master Project Space. Dually, this window corridor poses a sense of structural containment that aquatic pets must endure in a tank, a phenomenon simultaneously replicated here. Glug! blub! 🫧 Featuring projector art (to simulate image), biodegradable and recyclable glittery products to exaggerate overarching sunlight, Spectacle the Turtle at the photo-op station locally discovered pebbles and shiny materials as case-by-case decorative tunnel-covering accurate depictions of specific aquatic viscera, speaker(s) looping low volume nautically appropriate ASMR (bubbling, underwater vibrations, occasional bouts of realistic creature noises), and even a fun surreal surprise beyond the walls (look out for the bonus octopus! 😉) the Hogent-navigating pedestrian is invited to treat this shortcut as a transportative field trip outside their field of study (minus those deriving organic pigments from algae in the textile department and 3D printing lab, of course). 

*(named for the replica’s immediate proximity to similarly educational activities in KASK’s network buildings, for the marine presentational style passerby will be surrounded by as they traverse this area, and to be tongue in cheek about how the end of the school’s name is “& Conservatorium”) in order to stage the institutional functionality of an aquarium building attachment as the sort of afterthought it seems. Featuring projector art (for moving image) by lining about four securely fastened projectors across the center of floor for guests to walk/“swim” around [disguised and repurposed as tower viewers], biodegradable glitter to exaggerate overarching sunlight, transparent blue photo paper to scale, locally discovered shiny materials as case-by-case decorative tunnel-covering accurate depictions of specific aquatic viscera, speaker(s) looping low volume nautically appropriate ASMR (bubbling, underwater vibrations, occasional bouts of realistic creature noises), the Hogent-navigating pedestrian is invited to treat this shortcut as a transportative field trip outside their field of study (minus those deriving organic pigments from algae in the textile department and 3D printing lab, of course).

Come to the <& Kasquarium> closing event on 4 December for some edible glitter-topped wine or juice and algaeholic green 🔞 or non-alcoholic ocean blue Jell-O shots :) 🥂🧪✨🖲️ You can even enter the raffle to win your own [Sea Monkeys] to bring to life in water at home! 🦐🧜‍♂️🎁

Alalú can be a collection of objects, an autobiographical exhibition, a delicate piece of work, a drawing made during a phone call, a memory of Osorno, an illustrated poetry book hanging on the avenue, a way to put a child to sleep, a notebook left unfinished, a bird that follows you, a story told many times, a way to pass the time, a presentation, an intense cold, an amulet, an exercise in memory, a lapse, something that is germinating, three sighs, a glass of water, or even a murder.

-- Ik ga proberen een tekstje te schrijven voor grondwerken.

-- Is er iets wat er zeker in moet?

• Volgens mij niet veel.

Lately, I was thinking about becoming one with my doll,
transforming into her, or perhaps already being connected
to her subconsciously, even without fully realizing it.
How does it feel to be her? 

This project is a personal reinterpretation of the Slavic ritual
of burning Marzanna, a doll representing the death of winter and the coming of spring.
By bringing this tradition into a new context - both geographically and
emotionally - I reflect on leaving behind my past and creating space for
new beginnings.

In mijn werk is de cirkel nooit vaststaand — hij transformeert, past zich aan en neemt nieuwe rollen aan binnen een fictieve wereld die ik creëer. Ik speel met verschillende vormen en hun mogelijke betekenissen, maar de cirkel blijft centraal staan, vaak zowel als symbool als structureel element. Hij wordt een middel om te onderzoeken hoe vorm en compositie gelaagde associaties kunnen dragen, terwijl er toch ruimte overblijft voor ambiguïteit en verbeelding.

Born from a Wish Born from a Wish Born from a Wish Born from a Wish Born from a Wish Born from a Wish Born from a Wish Born from a Wish Born from a Wish Born from a Wish Born from a Wish Born from a Wish Born from a Wish Born from a Wish Born from a Wish Born from a Wish Born from a Wish Born from a Wish Born from a Wish Born from a Wish Born from a Wish Born from a Wish Born from a Wish Born from a Wish Born from a Wish Born from a Wish

While yall have been weeding your gardens and polishing your grills, Putzco had been working on a new set of exciting garden essentials. They will be on display at MAP from 8.05 till 18.05.25. Join us at the opening 8.05 from 18:00.

MAP staat voor MAsterProjectRuimte. De Glazen Gang op Campus Bijloke is gedurende het hele academiejaar het speelveld van verschillende masterstudenten.

“It could float, of course,

but would rather

plumb rough matter.

Airy and shapeless thing,

it needs

the metaphor of the body,”

• Poem, Mary Oliver, ‘Dream Work’ (1986)

A child hides under a sheet to play the ghost; a chair sits beneath a dust cover to protect it from paint. Their uncertain shapes are understood based on previous encounters. Concealing becomes part of the process of knowing, understanding the component parts of recognition — vague form, rough size, surrounding areas. Taken away from their usual environments Gabrielle Barbé’s hidden forms in On New Ground are twice-removed — from context, and from view. Edges, corners, and curves wrapped in fabric signal to a varied, semi-recognisable beneath. And then again, they are thrice removed. Working with the already-discarded objects of kerbsides and street corners, one stage of transition has occurred by the time Barbé intervenes. After moving from inside to outside, miscellaneous effects are pilfered, brought back indoors, repurposed and wrapped. Boundaries between public and private are blurred, with interior objects taking on new exteriorised meaning, only to be replaced again inside.

Amongst this unknowing is a certainty of these objects’ substance, giving density to the airiness of their textile wrappings. As Mary Oliver muses of the human spirit in her 1986 Poem — “it could float of course,/ but would rather/ plumb rough matter”. Barbé’s woven fabrics suggest similarly that they could be drifting away if untethered, but have come to rest stretched around a series of weighty forms. Without them they would collapse — airy, shapeless. Reminiscent in their own way of bandaged body parts, the works in On New Ground also recall the multiple ways in which fabric finds solidity. They speak to shapes wrapped around shoulders and feet; cast out on shop awnings, and tent poles; pleated over windows and spread around furniture. These appearances easily start to mimic each other — a covered chair looking rather like a seated figure, a curtain rail like the waist of a skirt. Barbé’s “metaphor of the body” is not just the suggestion of human bodies, but interior and structural ones too. Buildings and their rooms are their own types of skeletons. On New Ground bounces from the indoors to the outdoors, the interior to the architectural, intimacy to publicness. Under cover, hidden forms offer ways of gesturing to these in-betweens — a morse coded attempt at making sense of one another.

• Jean Watt

Gabrielle Barbé voltooit momenteel haar master in textielontwerp aan KASK & Conservatorium. Jean Watt studeert aan het postgraduaat curatorial studies.