Marijke van Warmerdam
25 Feb - 24 Mar 2012
MARIJKE VAN WARMERDAM
Haru
25 February – 24 March, 2012
Taka Ishii Gallery is pleased to announce our first exhibition with Amsterdam based Marijke van Warmerdam. Van Warmerdam is particularly well known for her film loops, which radiate a crystal clear simplicity. In her recent work “Face to face”, a group of macaws circle round a tree, which appears to exert a strong force of attraction on the birds. The tree trunk has an anthropoid face. Could that be the reason for all the excitement? One might believe it is, particularly when one of the macaws goes and sits on the ‘chin’ of the tree and looks straight into the tree trunk’s eyes. But is it true?
People have a primitive urge to see faces and objects in things and in the film the birds also seem to have that tendency. To me, Face to face is an encounter not just between the birds and the tree, but also between the viewer of the film and the tree
Marijke van Warmerdama
Besides this film loop Van Warmerdam will present a series of paintings based upon film stills printed on canvas. Her film loops are characterized by visual reduction, velocity, repetition and simplicity, and these characteristic elements can also be found in these paintings.
In her film stills on canvas one can see sprigs moving so fast that the flowers have become mere streaks, almost as if someone picked up a brush and smeared the blossoms. And why not reproduce by the painter’s hand that frozen moment in film and grab a brush or a piece of wood and get to work? And so the artist began to make a reverse painting with a bucket and broom of what was already present; a frozen moment.
The point of departure for the large Blossom series was again ‘highlighting what the image already contains’.
Marijke van Warmerdam
Born in The Netherlands in 1959, Marijke van Warmerdam lives and works in Amsterdam and for the past few years also in Karlsruhe. She was represented in the biennials of Sydney, Berlin, Kwangju and Venice, among others. In 1997 she participated in Documenta X in Kassel. She has held retrospective exhibitions in the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, Migros Museum in Zurich, ICA in Boston, Muhka in Antwerp, MAC in Marseille, The Fruitmarket in Edinburgh and IKON in Birmingham. Van Warmerdam has exhibited extensively within in Japan at venues including CCA Kitakyushu (1999,2002/5) as well as the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto (2000) and Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (2007). “Marijke van Warmerdam - Close by in the distance” is currently being held at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam and will be travelling to Museum Serralves, Porto and to Kunsthalle Düsseldorf.
Van Warmerdan will also be participating at the Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions to be held from February 10-26.http://www.yebizo.com/
The exhibition is produced with the cooperation of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Mondriaan Foundation.
Haru
25 February – 24 March, 2012
Taka Ishii Gallery is pleased to announce our first exhibition with Amsterdam based Marijke van Warmerdam. Van Warmerdam is particularly well known for her film loops, which radiate a crystal clear simplicity. In her recent work “Face to face”, a group of macaws circle round a tree, which appears to exert a strong force of attraction on the birds. The tree trunk has an anthropoid face. Could that be the reason for all the excitement? One might believe it is, particularly when one of the macaws goes and sits on the ‘chin’ of the tree and looks straight into the tree trunk’s eyes. But is it true?
People have a primitive urge to see faces and objects in things and in the film the birds also seem to have that tendency. To me, Face to face is an encounter not just between the birds and the tree, but also between the viewer of the film and the tree
Marijke van Warmerdama
Besides this film loop Van Warmerdam will present a series of paintings based upon film stills printed on canvas. Her film loops are characterized by visual reduction, velocity, repetition and simplicity, and these characteristic elements can also be found in these paintings.
In her film stills on canvas one can see sprigs moving so fast that the flowers have become mere streaks, almost as if someone picked up a brush and smeared the blossoms. And why not reproduce by the painter’s hand that frozen moment in film and grab a brush or a piece of wood and get to work? And so the artist began to make a reverse painting with a bucket and broom of what was already present; a frozen moment.
The point of departure for the large Blossom series was again ‘highlighting what the image already contains’.
Marijke van Warmerdam
Born in The Netherlands in 1959, Marijke van Warmerdam lives and works in Amsterdam and for the past few years also in Karlsruhe. She was represented in the biennials of Sydney, Berlin, Kwangju and Venice, among others. In 1997 she participated in Documenta X in Kassel. She has held retrospective exhibitions in the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, Migros Museum in Zurich, ICA in Boston, Muhka in Antwerp, MAC in Marseille, The Fruitmarket in Edinburgh and IKON in Birmingham. Van Warmerdam has exhibited extensively within in Japan at venues including CCA Kitakyushu (1999,2002/5) as well as the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto (2000) and Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (2007). “Marijke van Warmerdam - Close by in the distance” is currently being held at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam and will be travelling to Museum Serralves, Porto and to Kunsthalle Düsseldorf.
Van Warmerdan will also be participating at the Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions to be held from February 10-26.http://www.yebizo.com/
The exhibition is produced with the cooperation of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Mondriaan Foundation.