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until 28.10. | #1539ARTatBerlin | KLEMM’S shows from 15th Septmeber 2017 the exhibition “Residual Time” by the artist Gwenneth Boelens.
A divided space. A performative gesture of unthreading, or destabilizing, by hand. A fading fingerprint. A tapestry from a material used in radio antennas, heating elements, electromagnetic shielding and safety wear. A short film on the sheer invisibility of its subject matter in a recent study on dark matter phenomena.
Gwenneth Boelens’s sculptural and photographic work is concerned with perception, memory, and time. Throughout her work she aims to fix the traces of physical movement in space.
Boelens’ works originate from a desire to explore sensory boundaries of space in relation to the confinements of consciousness. Inside and outside are in a continuous tension. Definitions of space are delineated in the broadest sense – physical space of interiors and landscapes, places occupied by the body or a movement determined by it, and the space of the mind.
Originally trained as a photographer, in the past Boelens has used the antiquated wet plate collodion process for creating life-size glass negatives which are then displayed in sculptural installations. Her recent large-scale photograms are made over an extended exposure period during which the light source is obstructed by bodies that move and carry different objects—or “shields.” These works embody a polarity that is steeped in the present: a dual sense of opposition and shelter, of exclusion and inclusion. This duality is fixed in time and inscribed onto the photosensitive paper, a dynamic that is echoed by other works in the exhibition, such as a group of hand-pressed clay tablets, which evoke gestures of piercing and propping.
The artist’s approach attempting to translate processes of time and thought into material form is also visible in her recent textile pieces. Boelens uses electroconductive and reflective fibers to weave a “liar’s cloth”, inspired by a West African pattern of the same name. For a large hanging textile work, which will divide the gallery space, fibers were extracted from the woven material meticulously. The process of unraveling by hand is further emphasized by the use of a forensic chemical revealing the fingerprints of the weaver on the material.
Gwenneth Boelens (b. 1980 in Soest, NL) lives and works in Amsterdam. Boelens’s work has been exhibited at MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge (US), Ludwig Forum, Aachen (DE); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (NL); ACCA, Melbourne (AU), KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (DE) and elsewhere. She attended the Koninklijke Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten, Den Haag (NL), and the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam (NL).
Vernissage: Friday, 15th September 2017, 06:00 – 09:00 p.m.
Exhibitionperiod: Friday, 15th September until Saturday, 28th October 2017
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Image caption: Gwenneth Boelens: At Odds at MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, US Liar’s Cloth, 2017 Reflective and conductive thread, aramide, folding chair Undo, 2017 Cotton, latent fingerprints developed with fading forensic developer (ninhydrin), steel, aluminium, magnets
Exhibition: Residual Time – Gwenneth Boelens – KLEMM’S | Contemporary Art – Kunst in Berlin – ART at Berlin
