Space Between Us
1-29 November 2003
Megan Bedell, Catherine Bertola, Marc Bijl, Bill Breckenridge, Rupert Clamp, Marcus Coates, Jennifer Douglas, Yvonne Dröge Wendel, Alicia Framis, Natalie Frost, Francis Gomila, Hermelinde Hergenhahn, Brigitte Jurack, Job Koelewijn, AP Komen and Karen Murphy, Chris Rollen, Matt Stokes, Claire Todd, Edwin Zwakman
‘Space Between Us’ features the work of twenty contemporary artists based in the Netherlands and in the north east of England. Though the starting point is the collaboration between the two countries, the exhibition also includes artists from Germany, Spain, Ireland and the USA. ‘Space Between Us’ is a project by Vane and has been curated by Una Henry and Thomas Peutz of SMART Project Space in Amsterdam.
Suspended between cultural backdrops, ‘Space Between Us’ brings together works by twenty artists from The Netherlands and the north east of England and makes direct reference to their geographical distance. Focusing on the ways in which our cultural constructions are created, these artists propose alternatives, express concerns, reveal ironies and reposition the different parameters that delineate their surroundings. By grouping together diverse propositions within the same framework ‘Space Between Us’ provokes awareness and discussion of the ways in which liminal spaces or zones of mediation are configured.
The central theme of the exhibition is that of connection and dislocation of people and their environment and a dynamic understanding of the boundaries – be they physical, emotional or psychological – between these. The artists’ works are not bound to one another, rather they point in differing directions, addressing contemporary subjectivity and demonstrating how society’s structures and codes are embodied in the urban environment and the vulnerability of the individual. These concerns are played out through a complexity of narratives, politics, sounds and images. Adopting a method that is investigative, even anthropological, the works assume the form of a social examination of the public and private realm.
‘Space Between Us’ was a Vane exhibition presented at Friar House, the Guildhall, and public sites in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Marc Bijl’s work appears to be infused with social and political zeal, leaving the viewer in a state of perplexed anxiety…
Bill Breckenridge paints rooms, walls and panels onto which words or letters are applied…
Rupert Clamp creates work that explores and questions the ways in which we navigate the everyday world…
The work of Marcus Coates represents what might be described as a process of reverse anthropomorphism by giving animal characteristics to human beings…
Jennifer Douglas’ site-specific work uses everyday materials to explore the qualities and characteristics of a particular space…
Yvonne Dröge Wendel has devised an enormous air-filled latex ball, three and a half metres in diameter and seamlessly covered in black felt…
The political element in art has returned with a vengeance to the agenda of intellectual discourse and artistic practice in the work of Alicia Framis…
Working directly onto the fabric of buildings, Natalie Frost’s work is often initially camouflaged, simulating the surface or surroundings in which it is sited…
In Francis Gomila’s Night Out we witness a conflict between a man and a woman in the street…
The authentic re-presentation of reality in the work of Hermelinde Hergenhahn addresses the banality of the everyday and suffuses it with a lilting poetry…
Brigitte Jurack’s two-part work describes the power of the senses on the development of the mind…
Job Koelewijn’s work characteristically has an instantaneous, anti-climactic approach complemented by playfulness and irony…
In their storytelling, AP Komen and Karen Murphy manipulate narrative time in order to create a sense of psychological realism…
Chris Rollen employs the recollections of his parents to examine differences of memory and language…
Matt Stokes is involved in an ongoing investigation into the history of Out House Promotions, a defunct rave organisation…
Edwin Zwakman fabricates images of reality that destabilise and subtly shift our perspective…
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