Kunsthalle Düsseldorf

Marijke Van Warmerdam

01 Feb - 16 Mar 2014

MARIJKE VAN WARMERDAM
Close by in the Distance
1 February – 16 March 2014

Lea­ves and a fe­a­ther dancing in the wind, flowers in bloom, and a girl per­for­ming a hand­stand: the works of Ma­ri­jke van War­mer­dam ex­plo­re sim­ple things in a re­mar­ka­ble way.
Born in 1959, Van War­mer­dam li­ves and works in Ams­ter­dam and Karls­ru­he. She con­structs ima­ges and uses pho­to­gra­phic and filming tech­ni­ques in a way that opens up un­ex­pec­ted per­spec­tives and ac­cen­tua­tes the quiet be­au­ty of small things.

The ar­tist is best known for her short, lo­o­ped re­cor­dings. The Kunst­hal­le will be show­ing so­me of her well-known films such as Hand­stand (1992), Sky­ty­pers (1997), and Coup­le (2010) as pro­jec­tions. Along­side her vi­de­os and films, the ar­tist will al­so be ex­hi­bit­ing sculp­tu­res and film stills prin­ted on can­vas and par­ti­al­ly pain­ted wi­th acryl­ics.

Van War­mer­dam does not tell sto­ries in her work. In­s­tead, she re­li­es on the vi­su­al power of her mo­tifs: a fal­ling drop of milk that slow­ly dis­si­pa­tes in a glass of wa­ter in Dream Ma­chi­ne (2006), or the au­tumn lea­ves car­ried along by light gusts of wind through an ab­an­do­ned in­dus­tri­al land­scape in Wind (2010).

Com­bi­ning sound wi­th au­to­no­mous sculp­tu­re is a new ap­proach for the ar­tist. Un­til now, she has main­ly re­li­ed on the sym­bio­sis bet­ween sound and tit­le to pro­du­ce power­ful pic­tu­res. But the ar­chi­tec­tu­re of the spaces whe­re her works are pla­ced al­so ser­ve as in­spi­ra­ti­on – for ex­amp­le in “New balls, plea­se!”, a work spe­ci­al­ly crea­ted for this ex­hi­bi­ti­on, a zig­zag front and vi­b­ra­ting win­dows in­ter­act wi­th the hu­ge­ly ex­pan­si­ve win­dow fron­ta­ge in the Kunst­hal­le’s Sei­ten­licht­saal.

By fre­eing com­mon­place ob­jects from their ever­y­day con­text, Van War­mer­dam re­veals unusu­al ways of see­ing and ex­pe­ri­en­cing the world. The end­less­ly re­pea­ting lo­o­ped films ha­ve a hyp­no­tic ef­fect. Van War­mer­dam’s works evo­ke mul­ti­ple lay­ers of rea­li­ty and lead us to the bo­un­da­ry bet­ween dreams and the re­al world. Wi­th a ve­neer of light­ness, her works in­clu­de subt­le in­ter­ven­ti­ons li­ke tilts, twists, turns and re­flec­tions that pre­sent us wi­th new ways of see­ing. The­se of­ten mi­ni­mal chan­ges ul­ti­mate­ly en­cou­ra­ge us to mo­ve through the world a litt­le mo­re at­ten­tive­ly, wi­th our eyes a litt­le wi­der open.

The ex­hi­bi­ti­on and ca­ta­lo­gue ha­ve be­en pro­du­ced in co­ope­ra­ti­on wi­th Mu­se­um Boi­j­mans Van Beu­n­in­gen in Rot­ter­dam.
 

Tags: Li Ming, Marijke van Warmerdam