You are kindly invited to the opening of H U N T

This Friday 22 February 2013 @Galerie Fortlaan 17

H U N T - Stief Desmet

PAINTINGS & SCULPTURES

Galerie Fortlaan 17

Opening: 22 February from 19:00 until 21:30

Exhibition: 22 February - 20 April 2013

/NL/
H U N T omvat een nieuwe reeks schilderijen en sculpturen geconcipieerd vanuit de rusteloosheid en de blik van de jager, getuigend van een interesse in de ‘verhalen van de jager’.

Vertrekkend van een identificatie van de kunstenaar met de prehistorische ‘jager-verzamelaar’, zien we de kunstenaar enerzijds als ‘overlever’ -dankzij een sterke band met de natuur- en anderzijds als urbane ‘jager-verzamelaar’ van beelden in een culturele omgeving. Stief Desmet heeft eveneens oog heeft voor de geïdealiseerde natuur in verhalen, mythes en sprookjes. Dit resulteert o.m. in de aanwezigheid van een typische iconografie van herten, jagers, wolven, indianen, leeuwen, ... en hun narratieve connotaties. Tegelijkertijd zoekt Stief Desmet de natuur op, jaagt hij in landelijke en verstedelijkte context op beelden, verzamelt hij beeldmateriaal als prooi en gaat hij fragiliteit en wreedheid niet uit de weg. De verzamelde beelden worden na een zorgvuldige dissectie opnieuw samengesteld. De ontstane gesublimeerde beeldcomposities wekken nieuwe verhaallijnen tot leven.

H U N T nodigt de toeschouwer uit om zich te laten verleiden door de blik van de jager-verzamelaar en zich te voeden met zijn beelden, lijnen, kleuren en woorden. H U N T biedt een aanleiding tot escapisme, waarbij de zorgvuldig geselecteerde, gefilterde en gelaagde beelden soelaas kunnen bieden als tegenwicht voor de rush van het dagelijkse leven.

/E/
H U N T includes a new series of paintings and sculptures conceived from the restlessness and the eyes of the hunter, testifying to an interest in the "tales of the hunter”.

Starting from an identification of the artist with the prehistoric 'hunter-gatherer', we can see the artist as a 'survivor', thanks to a strong connection with nature- and as urban "hunter-gatherer" of images in a cultural environment. Stief Desmet also has eye for the idealized nature in stories, myths and fairy tales. This results in the presence of a typical iconography of deer, hunters, wolves, Indians, lions, ... and their narrative connotations. Simultaneously Stief Desmet looks for nature, he hunts for images in a rural, urbanized context and collects imagery as prey without avoiding fragility and cruelty. The images collected are recomposed after a careful dissection. The resulting sublimated image compositions generate new storylines.

H U N T invites the viewer to get seduced by the gaze of the hunter-gatherer and to feed on its images, lines, colors and words. H U N T provides an occasion to escape. The carefully selected, filtered and layered images alleviate and function as a counterbalance to the rush of everyday life.

Lawrence Malstaf @VOLTA NY 2013, New York

VOLTA NY IS AN INVITATIONAL SHOW OF SOLO ARTISTS’ PROJECTS

@82MERCER, NEW YORK, NY 10013

PREVIEW: 7 MARCH 2013 FROM 10:00 UNTIL 14:00

Art Fair: 7 - 10 MARCH, 2013

LAWRENCE MALSTAF
The work of Lawrence Malstaf is situated on the borderline between the visual and the theatrical. He develops installation and performance art with a strong focus on movement, coincidence, order and chaos, and immersive sensorial rooms for individual visitors. He also creates larger mobile environments dealing with space and orientation, often using the visitor as a co-actor. His projects involve advanced technology as a point of departure or inspiration and as a means for activating installations.

METABOLIC SPACES
Living objects, kinetic architecture and physical interaction are characteristics of the installations by Lawrence Malstaf. His responsive environments generate theatrical situations involving the visitor as an essential presence in their dramaturgy. In a complex play with unstable order, chance and change, his machines display emotion, doubt and other human qualities.

‘TERRITORIUM’, 02010 – 02012.
A space is divided into four rooms by two walls. A Euclidean space moving like the XY-axis of a plotter. The four rooms are constantly changing in size. When one becomes larger another becomes smaller. However, the walls are nearly immaterial: vertical strings hanging down only indicate the plan of the walls. Together with light and shadow they may look like a sterile AutoCAD drawing or a projection. Yet when a string touches a visitor it curves and hesitates like only physical objects can.

Lawrence Malstaf @Eyebeam, New York

EYEBEAM, ART + TECHNOLOGY CENTER, NEW YORK

PREVIEW: 7 MARCH 2013 FROM 18:00 UNTIL 20:00

Exhibition: 7 - 21 MARCH, 2013

‘CONVERSATIONS’, 02012.
Vibrating chairs are slowly moving and turning randomly through the space. They seem to search and reject each other. When a visitor passes by or sits down, the chairs hesitate and then carefully try out different patterns. The patterns are not designed; it is a self-organizing system where new compositions and new behaviors arise spontaneously through the duration of the installation.

Christoph De Boeck in 'Artificial Natures'

Espace Sculfort, Maubeuge

Festival VIA, Maubeuge (FR)

Vernissage: Thursday 14 March 2013 at 19:00

Exhibition: 14 March - 24 March 2013

The exhibition 'ARTIFICIAL NATURES' presents the works of 27 international artists, original visions of a reality transfigured by mutant times, when man plays with his ambiguous hold. The exhibition is conceived like a poetic installation’s journey. We will cross interactive nature’s parcels, laboratories reinventing scientific history, cinematographic transcriptions, spiritual trips, an invitation to the Garden of Eden...

'HORTUS' proposes an artistic ecology. The visitor walks into a green space where a sensor network registers the dynamics of human traffic and exterior wind and sunlight conditions. These data define the diversity of bird sound that the visitor can hear in the exhibition. Whenever visitors move the realistic sounds are replaced with synthetic versions.