Bildhalle Amsterdam Zurich (Booth 34): Joost Vandeburg (The Netherlands) 1982 (images 1-3)
In this edition of UNSEEN, Bildhalle is dedicating a solo presentation to the Dutch artist Joost Vandebrug, in which he will be showing exclusively premiere works. At the core of his oeuvre are imaginary landscapes composed of multiple small fractals from his visual memory and journeys.
Joost Vandebrug’s art explores the boundaries of the photographic medium, characterized by his meticulous attention to the material aspects of photography and his unconventional printing techniques. Vandebrug’s thematic interests encompass the natural, the vulnerable, the ephemeral, the poetic, the slow, and the magic of the everyday. His practice is distinguished by extensive material research, embracing imperfections as part of the creative process. He prints his works on meticulously crafted handmade Japanese washi paper, Nepali paper or baryta paper. Vandebrug considers imperfections as crucial to his work, as they expose the mechanics of the process and imbue the final product with a kind of vibrancy. Moreover, they echo the themes of his work, such as sensitivity and vulnerability.
Vandebrug’s previous series “Exhilarating” reflects a personal journey from fear and isolation to light and hope, depicted through handcrafted paper cards of mountain landscapes at twilight. By choosing the twilight in this series, light and dark are given equal weight and become equally important. His latest project, “Pillow Book,” plays with the idea of a personal diary, using monotypes on mulberry paper to explore memory’s fluidity over time, while Vandebrug’s fascination with the Danube is a recurring theme in his work. He views the river as a symbol of life, purity, and fertility, and as a metaphor for the irreversible passage of time. In addition to photographing natural objects collected from along the river, he also captures fragile items like wilted flowers through a microscope.
Studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, Vandebrug has a diverse artistic portfolio that includes photography, film, and various commercial projects. His documentary film “Bruce Lee and the Outlaw” has won awards and critical acclaim, including a five-star review from The Guardian. Vandebrug has exhibited widely, including at notable museums like Foam Photography Museum and FOMU.
Bildhalle Amsterdam
1071 HR Amsterdam
www.bildhalle.ch/
Bildhalle Zurich
8004 Zurich & 8003 Zurich (2 locations)
www.bildhalle.ch/
BUCHKUNST BERLIN Gallery Berlin Booth 41: Johnny Miller (USA)/ SA) (images 4-6)
Johnny Miller contributes with his series Unequal Scenes & Saltworks To A new Image of Inequality
He captures with his aerial photographs of his longtime series „Unequal Scenes” the territorial transitions and spatial separations between different parts of the city and social groups, thereby visualizing economic and social inequalities in a new way. At the same time, the unusual perspective of the images taken with a drone creates a pattern of abstractions, the decoding of which is fascinating, but at the same time points to social injustices and the problems and connections of global developments. A new way of seeing the city and its visual and social transition areas, the associated economic and ecological connections and the connection between abstraction and enlightenment.
Miller’s photos in the “Salt Works” series were also taken with the help of a drone. The unusual perspective on the colourful landscape creates abstractions that are fascinating to decipher and are reminiscent of expressive modern painting, but at the same time point to the problems of human intervention in nature. The painterly panel paintings show the process of salt extraction: seawater is channelled into artificially created evaporation basins, where salt growth is encouraged. The colour of the water is created by macrobacteria that change their colour as the salt concentration increases. When the ponds dry out, the resulting layer of salt is harvested, washed and transported away.
Johnny Miller took photographs for his “Saltworks” in Wallvis Bay, Namibia and in the San Francisco Bay Area.
BUCHKUNST BERLIN Galerie, verlag & agentur
10117 Berlin
www.buchkunst-berlin.de
Contour Gallery Rotterdam: Emile Gostelie, Jan Pypers, Tjitske Oosterholt
Emile Gostelie (The Netherlands) 1957 (images 7-9)
Gostelie investigates the unseen potential of our world by endlessly deconstructing one original photo and reassembling its parts by hand into new shapes and meanings. Given its evolutionary character, his work consists of one interconnected series with multiple sub-series. He is inspired by the work of physicist Ludwig Boltzmann (entropy) and biologist Charles Darwin (evolution). They showed that nature constantly evolves matter and life by re-combining basic building blocks. Random experimentation and change are fundamental laws of nature, leading to diversity and adaption to circumstances, implying our ‘reality’ is more a temporary happening than a status quo. Gostelie investigates the world of possibility, variation and evolution by creating new shapes from the parts of the one original photo. Based on chance and trial, he constantly “discovers” different “species” of shapes with¬ variation within each species. In doing so he often arrives at mythical, monumental structures which have seductive, sublime forms whilst at the same time referencing to power and loss. His work investigates not only alternative realities, evolution and sublime monuments but also questions the reality value of a photograph.
Gostelie is fascinated, even obsessed with discovering the diversity and richness of unseen but possible worlds. When he is at work, he becomes an researcher of the wonders of our universe – which fills him with a sense of prosperity. He experiences a strong personal connection with all the diverse species he has met and feels a sense of empathy for their specific quirks. For Gostelie, prosperity comes from realizing he is part of this unfathomable but magical natural world where embracing diversity is truly fulfilling.
Jan Pypers (Belgium) 1982 (images 10-12)
Diorama” is about our lost connection with nature and is inspired by the old dioramas from museums. Dioramas are life-size, three-dimensional viewing boxes that show animals in their environment. They were built with great care in natural history museums from the beginning of the 20th century to reconnect urbanized people with nature. The use of forced perspective created incredible depth, giving the viewer the impression of being able to see for miles across a room. Smart, incredibly beautiful but above all artificial. These artificial windows on nature are not only found in museums. The old square viewing boxes now have a modern digital version. Like dioramas, social media platforms use visual elements to give us a polished view of reality. In many ways, modern society is completely disconnected from nature. With the advent of modern technologies and urbanization, many people are spending less and less time outdoors, away from nature, and more time in artificial environments. This disconnect has consequences including a lack of appreciation for the beauty and importance of nature, declining physical and mental health, and a reduced understanding of the complex relationships between people and the natural world. It is important that people find ways to reconnect with nature.
The gallery also shows images of Tjitske Oosterholt (The Netherlands) 1991)
Galerie Contour
Rotterdam
www.contour.gallery
Depth of Field – Amsterdam: Giuseppe Enrie, Adolphe Braun , Albert Renger-Patzsch, René Geritsen, Gert Jan Kocken
DOF is presenting historical images that originally was intended as documentary photography and support for visual arts. But how should we view photos taken around 1860 or 1931, which aimed to capture reality? While the intent of early photographers was likely not to create autonomous art, their work now forms the foundation upon which contemporary photographers build. By showcasing historical and contemporary documentary photography side by side, DOF aims not only to highlight the aesthetics of traditional photographic processes but also to demonstrate how photography can add a new dimension to original artworks.
Life-Size Official Photograph of the Shroud of Turin (1932) Giuseppe Enrie (Italy) 1886–1961 (image 13)
The Shroud of Turin is a linen cloth believed by many to be the burial shroud of Jeus Christ, wrapping a crucified man after his death. Giuseppe Enrie, an Italian photographer renowned for his technical skill, took the official photograph of the Shroud in 1932. This life-size print, of great historical significance, was the first to clearly reveal the contours of the figure on the shroud, sparking numerous investigations and debates about its authenticity.
Enrie’s use of the most advanced photographic techniques of his time made it possible to capture details previously unseen. His photographs played a crucial role in the scientific analysis of the shroud, leading to various studies, including forensic analysis and carbon dating. While the primary goal of this photographic work was documentary, Enrie’s negatives unveiled previously hidden details, with far-reaching consequences for the ongoing study and interpretation of the Shroud.
Series of Carbon Prints from 1860 by Adolphe Braun (Germany) 1812-1877 14 (images 14-15)
Adolphe Braun was an influential French photographer who began photographing artworks in 1860 on behalf of museums and art collectors. He used the carbon print technique, a photographic process known for its durability and exceptional quality. Braun’s company, Braun et Cie, was a pioneer in photographic techniques and became one of the most important photography studios in Europe.
At DOF, a series of carbon prints by Adolphe Braun from 1860 will be on display, including self-portraits of Rembrandt and Velázquez, commissioned by the Tate in London. The photographer’s hand is still visible in the untrimmed development edges. How many modern artists today continue to experiment with revealing the photographic process?
Photography of the Painting (Wandbild Zyklos) by Oskar Schlemmer, by Albert Renger-Patzsch (Germany) 1897-1966
Oskar Schlemmer was known for his experiments with form, color, and space. The “Wandbild Zyklos” by Schlemmer was a significant work within his oeuvre and the Bauhaus movement. In 1937, this work was confiscated and destroyed by the Nazi party as ‘degenerate art.’ Albert Renger-Patzsch, a prominent German photographer known for his contributions to the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), photographed this painting just before it was destroyed. Although the original “Wandbild Zyklos” no longer exists physically, we still know something of it through this documentation.
The present
Unique X-ray Images by René Geritsen (The Netherlands) (images 16-17)
Geritsen uses X-ray photography as a technique to reveal the underlying layers of artworks. His work, which belongs to modern methods for determining the composition of paintings, is still performed using analog techniques. Geritsen’s X-ray images reveal not only the surface layers of a painting but also the internal structures, such as the wood and nails. This adds a new dimension to the artwork. Geritsen combines traditional photographic processes with advanced technologies, resulting in unique visual and scientific approaches. His photographic works thus bridge the gap between investigative photography and artistic interpretation.
Gert Jan Kocken (The Netherlands) 1971 (images 18-19)
A photographer whose work thematically fits into this exhibition is Gert Jan Kocken. Kocken is known for his documentation of historical and political events. His photo series “Defacing,” 2004–2009, represents mutilated artworks that survived the iconoclasm in Northern Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Four years of research, combined with Kocken’s characteristic technical precision, resulted in entirely new images that challenge collective memory. Through his strong visual language and ability to uncover deeper layers of meaning, Kocken invites the viewer to reflect on the fragility of art and culture and how these can be influenced and altered by human actions over time.
Depth of Field – Collectable Historical Photography
1016 SR Amsterdam
www.dof.amsterdam
Einspach & Czapolai Fine Art & Photography Budapest: , Tamas Dezsö (Hungary) 1978 (images 20-22)
In addition to human, non-human and vegetal identity, Tamas Dezsö’s works focus on a human being’s relationship to the environment and to nature, that is to the non-human world. With serious theoretical background and research, he highlights the questions and problems which the ecological crisis and the advancing climate catastrophe, i.e. problems of our Anthropocene age, raise very sharply by applying varied art forms and media, including photographs, statues, kinetic works and installations. Each of Dezsö’s works addresses a problem which takes form via the sensory images or the reality of sometimes a forest on the Azores, sometimes a several-hundred-year-old hedge or pine tree, sometimes the world’s smallest insect, sometimes a fragment of a 4.5-billion-year-old meteorite, sometimes 19th-century segments and metronomes. Dezsö’s works present and speak to us about the end of the planetary rule of human beings, their blindness to everything that is not them, and the fundamentally unknown, silent world of the non-human – nature, plants, insects and animals. The artist searches for the traces in human beings which connect them with the environment and vegetal identity, by this proving that our race is not superior, only one among the world’s organic and non-organic beings.
Einspach & Czapolai Fine Art & Photography Budapest
H-1054 Budapest
www.einspach.com
FLAT//LAND Amsterdam – Leila Jeffreys, Kim Boske
Leila Jeffreys (Papua New Guinea/ Australia) 1972 (images 23-25)
Leila Jeffreys is a renowned contemporary artist working across photography, moving image and installation. She is best known for images of birds, photographed at human scale, that explore and subvert the conventions of portraiture. Jeffreys, who lives and works in Sydney with her husband and son, sees her avian subjects as living beings, part of a practice that expands viewer’s hearts by drawing attention to interdependence between species. Jeffreys’ work is a result of years-long periods of research and exploration. In the tradition of artist-activists, she conducts fieldwork, collaborates with conservationists, ornithologists and sanctuaries and champions programs to protect and restore endangered habitats. Jeffreys has exhibited in Australia and around the world for fifteen years, everywhere from Sydney and Melbourne to Paris, Brussels and Los Angeles. A week after Unseen, her work is part of the exhibition ALPHA // FEMALE, curated by FLAT // LAND at the Glazen Huis, Amstelpark on 28 and 29 September.
Kim Boske (The Netherlands) 1978 (images 26-27)
By going beyond the photographic media, which captures the “moment”, Boske collects fragments of reality that are then layered into intricate and mesmerizing compositions which tribute the incredible complexity of the natural element. This multitude of layers can be interpreted as a play with ecological ideas of diversity and symbiosis, embracing the character of the environment as a non-hierarchical, continuously changing complexity. Boske found an approach towards nature in Asiatic Shinto in Japan. Shinto is an old nature religion, which recognizes nature as all-encompassing and humans as parts of them, equal to all other bio-organisms and matter. In the artist in residence stays in Kamiyama, together with people from the village community there, she experimented and explored new ways of image making. These not only include the visual and rational, but also the sensuous; the way the environment is experienced through materiality and with all senses. The all-encompassing nature of her work can best be illustrated in her new work that she completed in Japan in 2023 during her artist-in residence stay. In some of these works, titled Kawa no nagare (river flowing or 川の流れ) no photographic lens was ever used and Boske worked only with washi paper and her own recycled indigo or even solely of washi paper that she hand-produced herself. Working with natural materials reflects both literally and figuratively the importance of biological diversity through the presence of the many soil micro-organisms in her work. A week after Unseen, her work is part of the exhibition ALPHA // FEMALE, curated by FLAT // LAND at the Glazen Huis, Amstelpark on 28 and 29 September.
FLAT // LAND
1076 DW Amsterdam
www.flatlandgallery.com
Gallery JAPANESQUE Paris: Yasuo Kiyonaga (Japon) 1948 (images 28-30)
For this 2024 edition of Unseen, we are once again presenting Japanese artist Yasuo Kiyonaga. He always tries to go beyond the limits of photography by mixing different techniques and materials such as paint, pastel, branches or sand.
He chose this method because he was trying to express something that we can’t see with our eyes.
Imagine the time of the trees in the forest of the Japanese Alps in ‘REAL’, the coexistence of past and future in the ancient Japanese capital in ‘Turbulence in Kyoto’, the perspective on the landscape in the artist’s memory in ‘Two landscapes’.
Gallery JAPANESQUE Paris
75006 Paris
www.kyoto-muse.jp/paris/
