Culture

Dean Project in New York is organizing the exhibition The Thing That(’s) Left, curated by visual artist Patricia Smith, which includes the work of four contemporary Flemish artists: Rik De Boe, Johan De Wilde, Peter Morrens, and Hannelore Van Dijck. The show will be on view through July 21st. It is a collective exploration of a state of mind that has to do with silence, emptiness, and the residual experience that is left when all explanations end. Patricia Smith invited 6 artists in total (4 from Flanders and 2 from New York) whose work embodies these qualities and at the same time retains a strong visual presence. Several artists employ text or narrative, yet manage to subvert logical explanations. These works exude mystery – masterfully producing the tangible sensation that something is missing, or has been taken away. Confronted with these moody creations, the viewer contemplates the impossibility of categorizing or defining the images, and experiences their fragility and impermanence.

Rik De Boe specializes in large-format engravings which he describes as a hallucinatory prose of every-day life. His most recent work is a series of drawings of what he could see in the last few seconds before his death – a storyboard for a film he will never be able to make. His work often deals, in a melancholic way, with the passing of time, memory and the illusive quality of it. He is not really interested in originality but more fascinated by déjà vu effects. He also works with video mostly based on found footage.

Known for his meticulous pencil drawings whereby the imagery re-/disappears through the imagination and eye of the beholder, Johan De Wilde takes his topics both from everyday situations he comes across, as well as historical events. Juxtaposing the concept of palimpsest with that of mechanical reproduction, De Wilde adapts a highly personal drawing technique whereby he manually though systematically and seemingly mechanically builds up each drawing line by line. Creating drawings that are trapped between the abstract and the narrative, De Wilde questions the seductive force of an image and the way the beholder reads it.

Peter Morrens dedicates himself to a sort of Italian ‘combinazione’, a complex maneuver made of arrangements that serve up facts, fiction and lies. Morrens fuses ideas and reacts to all stimuli, shaping a visual production that explodes in myriad directions. He uses a variety of techniques: drawing, printing, painting and photography, and also writes and constructs installations, interfering with the space itself.

Hannelore Van Dijck works exclusively in the ephemeral medium of charcoal, creating curiously dreamlike mirages of walls of ceramic tiles, expanses of water, or bland architectural details. Her drawings range from intimate works on paper to huge site pieces in galleries, in empty buildings, and on the streets.