Late 1999, De Kabinetten van De Vleeshal presented work by young Swedish artist Per Wizén and Japanese artist Keiko Sato (works and lives in the Netherlands).
Photo(s): 1-4: Leo van Kampen, 5-6 Kees Brandenburg
Per Wizén
Reworkings featured Per Wizén’s collages, in which he – literally – dissects Carravaggio’s paintings. His large, photographically reproduced collages closely resemble 17th century paintings. Their shiny photographic surfaces, however, immediately give away the modern and mechanical nature of the works.
Wizén cut up reproductions of Caravaggio’s paintings. Using photographic techniques, he subsequently treated the segments – reducing or enlarging them, changing their colours and surfaces – before incorporating them into collages. These new works reinforce, obscure and conceal motifs in Caravaggio’s paintings: violence, lust, beauty and decline. The violence so clearly present in Caravaggio’s work (the lives of the martyrs, the crucifixion, the historical paintings) acquires new, succinct meaning in Wizén’s collages – here, a world belonging to young boys is ripped apart by old men.
Keiko Sato
Keiko Sato transformed the floor of the middle space of De Kabinetten van De Vleeshal into a sculptural landscape made up of materials such as cut up paper flags (the kind used to decorate ice creams and cakes), modelling clay and cotton threads. Visitors wandered through this miniature landscape as if they were modern Gullivers, taking in the contours of the countries, coast lines, cities and towers outlined all around them.
At first the landscape seemed peaceful. Gradually, however, dead flies, daddy longlegs and butterflies began to appear: harbingers of doom, scattered about again and again by viewers’ footsteps. Their presence altered the meaning of the little flags: no longer just markings of scenic features, but also silent witnesses to an imaginary history of constant, violent human movement – of war and conquest.
exhibitions
tags: keiko sato,
per wizén
