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REMEMBER / DISMEMBER - CHAPTER 1

This project is an offshoot from a concept explored in previous bodies of work created by the artist in the past. It is about his relationship, as an artist and art-passionate, to historical artworks and the possibilities that lie within the reinterpretation (/playfulness) of these artworks.

 

The main exercise within this exhibition is to explore his memory and see how he can 'build an artwork' from memory. Even though in his artistic practice he relies a great deal on visual memory, he was really surprised to find out how difficult it was to 'recreate' artworks from memory alone. This led him to extract the generic picture from his mind and transfer it on canvas/clay in a very abstracted way - primarily focusing on colour, composition, light, and shade. Afterward, he would superimpose an accurate depiction (or at least selected parts) of the actual painting/sculpture onto the abstractions. This process revealed an interesting insight into his ability to recall a historical artwork - one would find correct use of colour and composition, wrong assumption, interesting coincidences, and new possibilities.

 

Eventually, the body of work evolved into incorporating new compositions within the depictions of historical artworks - thus creating other variables that would in turn challenge the audience's ability to recall the historical artwork and point out the 'false' depictions.

 

Given that these works are all re-interpretations of 17th & 18th century works, it was decided to apply the 'salon-hang' approach throughout the room, to recreate the atmosphere of palaces of the era or museums of the 19th century, where the original artworks would have been exhibited and where it was fashionable to cover the walls from floor to ceiling with artworks.

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