Unseen
Booth #32
Joeri Woudstra; Inge Schoutsen; with special guest presentation Michiel Kluiters
The work of Woudstra and Schoutsen will present a hybrid presentation from lens-based work till installation. Contrasting approaches towards the object trouvé engage in conversation, the memorial audiovisual reconstructed compositions of Woudstra against the semiotic imagery of Schoutsen.
At Unseen Joeri Woudstra (1993) will show a mechanic Mupi, the ones we see on our daily commutes. A 'piece of street furniture', designed purely as a neutral carrier of advertising and visual culture in the public space. By removing the Mupi from its original context, the object emphatically becomes part of the art displayed. Instead of passing by and passively accepting the presence of the object in our surroundings, the audience pauses for a moment and gets the chance to appreciate the object for its visual qualities. An ongoing series of poster-sized works rotate inside, referring to the aesthetics of contemporary street advertising culture, revealing a new composition 10 seconds at a time.
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Next to that, Woudstra will also show a new work in which he dives even deeper into the analysis of this object trouvé, turning it inside out and outside in.
Schoutsen (1974) did react on Woudstra’s works by stepping on new grounds with a floor piece “The secret rules of engagement’. Schoutsen’s point of departure is the semiotic language in imagery. She takes that literally by using imagery of signs in traffic touched by unintentional human interaction. Like Woudstra, she distilled the object trouvé from its context but tucks it into an observational and symbolic perspective.
Schoutsen accompanies the floor piece with some new photopolymer etchings. With these new works Schoutsen aimed for a more profound presence of abstraction in her photo’s, therewith blending in perfectly with the rest of the booth presentation.
Special guest presentation: Doorways / Michiel Kluiters​
Jap Sam Books, artist Michiel Kluiters and designer Edwin van Gelder from Mainstudio are excited to announce the artist book Doorways is just released and on view at Unseen, Josilda da Conceição Gallery, Booth # 32.
With Doorways, visual artist Michiel Kluiters (1971) investigates how space (or spatiality) works in photography and how it can become an instrument for narration. A series of photographed spaces open up a conversation and hint at intimate stories. Walls look creaked, roughly textured. They seem to address the hands instead of the eyes: they beg to be touched, to be stroked, to be felt. These spaces look like unfinished buildings or abandoned ruins, still under construction or already in decline. This introduction of a temporal sense – of something that is pointing towards a future completion or to a lingering memory of something that has irrevocably passed – adds to the inherent instability of these works. Are we looking at places that depict a possible dystopian future or the remnants of a utopian past?