We are proud to present the duo presentation Sight by Sight with work by Johan Kleinjan, a well-known name in the gallery, and newcomer Saar Scheerlings. The work of Johan and Saar shows that cultural objects are not fixed forms but are subject to constant change.
Saar Scheerlings (1990) investigates the meaning of cultural objects. Her art is an endless mill of production, constantly susceptible to outside influences. It is a process like a trade route or port where all kinds of previously unknown things can influence each other. Anything can be a starting point or lead for Saar to take a new direction, such as a tea box lying around in the studio or a self-invented technique.
She is building the material culture of a fictitious civilisation. Inspired by ethnographic collections in museums, textile crafts and building methods, her work is a search for a sense of inspiration and meaning as we know it from ancient cultures and religious artefacts. In doing so, Saar looks at traditional ways of making and reuses both special and everyday materials. She presents the work in this exhibition as an installation - a playing field with talismans and ceramic carafes from which self-brewed liquor is poured. She invites visitors to interact with the work and project their own ideas onto it. In this way she wants to show that culture is not unequivocal but hybrid and subject to a multitude of interpretations.
Johan Kleinjan (1974) is fascinated by Asian culture. He worked for a long time in Tokyo, Taiwan, Beijing and Chongqing. In these cities he was impressed by the high-rise buildings. The series of buildings in this exhibition originated from Johan's diaries, in which he keeps a record of everything he experiences. Some of the images in the exhibition have been stuck in his mind for decades. For the first time Johan has painted them in monumental format, in his characteristic, raw style and in his special colour palette. The buildings are often minimalist in design. They could just as well have been built outside Asia. It is the tropical landscapes around them and the inventiveness of the users that give these buildings their - for Johan irresistible - character. In Chongqing, for example, he discovered the diversity among the residents of the uniform residential towers by looking at their balconies. Where one turns his balcony into a jungle, the other uses it as a birdcage or storage for air conditioners.
Because of Covid 19 we ask you to register your visit through the RSVP button below and keep a distance of 1,5 meters during your visit. We look forward to welcoming you in the gallery.
RSVP OPENING FRIDAY OCTOBER 2 | 15.00-21.00
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