Tom Callemin's artistic research starts from the question of how identity and meaning arise within our perception of images. These processes are constantly changing now that digital and artificial techniques effortlessly generate convincing realities. The photographic images we are confronted with every day increasingly show us a fictional illusion. A fundamental tension is particularly evident in portraiture: behind the skin of the synthetic body lie not psychology or emotions, but merely mathematical calculations of data.

Based on this theme, Callemin set to work with analogue materials such as plaster, wood, clay, shadow and light to create new images that challenge our perception. Like a mirror, each image is a reflection of our gaze and of the act of depicting itself. What do we see? Can we believe the image as it presents itself to us? To what extent do we ourselves give meaning to what we see, apart from what is happening before our eyes?

In the exhibition, Callemin's photographic work is combined with an extensive archive of visual material that addresses these issues throughout history and in different contexts. The developments we are confronted with today in the field of visual culture are not new. With the advent of each medium, such as painting, film and sculpture, which once constituted a technological innovation, similar questions arose about image, meaning and illusion.

A third section of the exhibition stems from the collaboration with filmmaker Griet Teck, who translated the visual research in Callemin's studio into a short film. We get a glimpse of how details from the studio form an illusion in front of the camera. Entire landscapes are constructed in the privacy of the studio as a second reality, where reality unfolds slightly differently. This reveals the underlying constructions of the images that Callemin meticulously builds up. It becomes clear that his images carry an illusion not only in their subject matter, but also in their creation.

Tom Callemin is an artistic researcher affiliated with KASK & Conservatorium, the school of arts of HOGENT and Howest. The research project “Hidden in Plain Sight” was funded by the HOGENT Arts Research Fund.

On 15 January 2026, Tom Callemin, artistic researcher at KASK & Conservatorium, will defend his doctoral reasearch to obtain the title of Doctor of Arts. On behalf of the candidate's supervisors, Dr. Anouk De Clercq (KASK & Conservatorium) and Prof. Dr. Koenraad Jonckheere (UGent), we would like to invite you to this event.

The public defense will start at 15:00 in the Zwarte Zaal on Campus Bijloke. Afterwards, you are welcome to attend the reception. The exhibition Double Reality (Research Output) can be visited at the same location before and after the defense. Please confirm your attendance at the public defense by emailing tom.callemin@hogent.be.

Tom Callemin's artistic research starts from the question of how identity and meaning arise within our perception of images. These processes are constantly changing now that digital and artificial techniques effortlessly generate convincing realities. The photographic images we are confronted with every day increasingly show us a fictional illusion. A fundamental tension is particularly evident in portraiture: behind the skin of the synthetic body lie not psychology or emotions, but merely mathematical calculations of data.

Based on this theme, Callemin explores how we can still understand or trust images. He works with analogue materials such as plaster, wood, clay, shadow and light to construct new situations that exist on the border between reality and illusion. These tangible, material elements counterbalance digital representations and at the same time reveal that every image – however convincing – is a constructed reality.

His images therefore function as mirrors: they turn the gaze back to the viewer and to the process of meaning-making itself. What exactly do we see? Can we believe the image as it presents itself? And to what extent do our own expectations, doubts and projections determine what we perceive? Callemin's research makes it clear that the encounter between image and observer creates a constantly shifting landscape of interpretations, in which identity and meaning are never stable data, but are constantly being reshaped.

The research project Hidden in Plain Sight was funded by the HOGENT Arts Research Fund.

Praktisch

Due to roadworks at the Godshuizenlaan / Groot-Brittanniëlaan intersection, it is very difficult to reach Louis Pasteurlaan by car and to park there. Please use public transport as much as possible. From Gent Sint-Pieters, you can take tram T1 or T3 to Bijlokehof. Here you can find instructions on how to reach the Bijloke site during the roadworks.

The most accessible route (including for wheelchair users) is via the entrance at STAM, Godshuizenlaan 2.