Space, Expanding
Galerie Hein Elferink
Kastanjelaan 5
7951 KD Staphorst
The Netherlands

December 1, 2012 – January 13, 2013
Opening: Saturday, December 1, 3–5 pm
Finissage: Sunday, January 13, 2–3 pm
Hours: Thu 2–6 pm, Fri–Sat 10 am – 6 pm, and by appointment; also open on December 9, and January 13, 1–5 pm

Participating artists: Henriëtte van ’t Hoog, Gracia Khouw, Mischa Rakier, Sonia Rijnhout.

 
Catalogue of Space, Expanding in PDF

From Gracia Khouw’s preface in the catalogue:

In cosmology there is a theory that the universe is expanding at an ever-increasing rate. Started from a small universe that sprayed apart with a big bang, this unknown force is still continuing and increasingly pushes galaxies apart. This takes place in a time and space that are almost unimaginable and immeasurable for us.

Scientific discoveries about the universe expand our perception and provide a framework for the imagination. Painting does this as well. If you stand in front of a painting, you dive into the time and space of the painting. The eye sees lines, surfaces, colour and paint in a certain order and puts the imagination to work, looking for meaning that relates primarily to our immediate surroundings, the habitable world. But what if the meaning refuses to be reduced to the reality as we experience it in everyday life?

In the exhibition Space, Expanding four artists are brought together who investigate ‘space’ in a manner akin to thinking about the universe. Unlike an architectural, habitable room you can build, which has dimensions through which you can walk, there is also space that denies any such foothold. Imagine a space that is continuously expanding and where there are no fixed dimensions or distances. What effect will that have on our perception of depth, motion and matter?

The artworks in Space, Expanding approach space differently from what we are accustomed to seeing. At first glance, they proceed from a recognizable starting point, such as perspective, grid lines, text, images or reflections of reality, but on closer inspection each image contains within itself multiple representations or propositions of reality.