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Elad Lassry, born in Tel Aviv in 1977, and now living and working in Los Angeles, created an installation for the third Sensory Spaces. This was the first time a Dutch museum has featured his work. Elad Lassry focuses on the workings of the photographic image, both on a two-dimensional plane and in three-dimensional space. ‘Pictures,’ says Lassry, ‘are so very like what we see, and so very unlike what we see.’ He strips the photographic image down and plays with the individual elements that make up each shot—focus, depth, color, and scale. Recognizable images and the meanings we ascribe to them are called into question.
Many of Lassry’s photographs also contain formal elements. As well as geometric cut-outs, he places rectangular elements that resemble plinths in his photographs. Lassry recently started showing framed photographs with colorful silk ‘covers,’ which, like the geometric forms on the photograph, partially obscure the image. The geometric sculptures in Lassry’s installations serve the same function as these frames, shapes and covers.
This game of abstraction extends to their presentation. His photographs are framed in wooden frames, often painted with brightly colored gloss paint that corresponds to the main color in the photograph. The frame adds an abstract element to the work. The accompanying label explicitly includes the frame as part of the artwork, thus transforming the framed photographs into spatial objects consisting of a photograph and a frame. The geometric shapes and silk covers reinforce the notion that these are not simply framed photographs or collages, but three-dimensional objects.
Perception is also central to Lassry’s installation for Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. The three freestanding sculptures are both decorative and functional. They function both as barriers to perception and as ‘viewing stations.’ As we move through the space we discover how the sculptures influence our perception of the photographic objects on the walls. Our eyes and movements are directed through the installation as a dancer’s movements are dictated by the choreography.
Each exhibition will be accompanied by a bilingual booklet with an essay by the curator:
Sensory Spaces is a series of commissioned solo projects presented in the Willem van der Vorm Gallery, located in the freely accessible exhibition space in the museum’s entrance hall. Artists are invited to respond to the architectural qualities of the space, emphasizing notions of transformation and surprise.
American artist Oscar Tuzaon has kicked off this new series. In this open space Tuazon has arranged several sculptural constructions. The artist fuses architectural and...
Read moreSabine Hornig (Germany, lives in Berlin) is known for making photographs, sculptures and installations that distort or intensify our experience of space and time. At first glance, her work can appear deceptively simple, but...
Read moreElad Lassry focuses on the workings of the photographic image, both on a two-dimensional plane and in three-dimensional space. ‘Pictures,’ says Lassry, ‘are so very like what we see, and so very unlike what we see.’ He strips...
Read moreMuseum Boijmans Van Beuningen asked Liu Wei (Beijing, 1972) to make a site-specific for the forth edition of Sensory Spaces. Liu Wei’s work deals with China’s rapid modernization and urban growth. Literally using the materials a city is made of, he takes...
Read moreThe fifth site-specific installation is made by Siobhán Hapaska. Siobhán Hapaska (Belfast, 1963) makes installations that speak to all the senses. She uses organic and synthetic materials and works on the border between...
Read moreFor the sixth edition of the series Sensory Spaces Sara VanDerBeek (Baltimore 1976) walked around Rotterdam for several days; she photographed what she saw and built an archive of images. From this experience, she has created a modular installation...
Read moreFor the seventh edition Aleksandra Domanović (Novi Sad, Yugoslavia 1981) has made an installation that examines themes such as reproduction and representation and man and machine. In the Willem van der Vorm Gallery a cluster of semi-transparent foils printed with images that include...
Read moreMuseum Boijmans Van Beuningen invited the British artist Mike Nelson (Loughborough 1967) to produce a work for Sensory Spaces 8. Nelson presented ‘Amnesiac Shrine’, an installation made up of a set of successive artworks that combine to form an...
Read moreBeni Bischof is the ultimate mix and matcher: in all his work he combines and adapts existing images, texts and situations. His work can be read as an ironic commentary on the banality of everyday life. And he doesn’t...
Read moreFor the tenth edition of the ongoing series Sensory Spaces, Nicolai presented a site-specific adaptation of the works ‘Probestück 1, 2 and 3’. Following the Greek composer Iannis Xenakis’ (1922-2001) definition of architecture as ‘petrified music’, it investigates...
Read moreHefti's work is experimental, it untilizes chemical and technical processes with industrial equipment in order to discover new things. His work includes many aspects; nature and industry, abstraction and figuration. Hefti often works with engineers, scientists and even...
Read moreCruzvillegas builds his sculptures from found materials, a principle he calls ‘autoconstrucción’. His work is an expression of human reality...
Read moreFor the thirteenth edition of the Sensory Spaces series the British artist Anne Hardy will present a new site-specific FIELD work. Anne Hardy makes large-scale installations in which objects, light, color and sound seem to take on a life of their own. She invites ...
Read moreLatifa Echakhch presents a new installation for the fourteenth edition of Sensory Spaces in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. It is the first time this internationally-renowned artist – winner of the 2013 Marcel Duchamp...
Read moreSol Calero has created a colourful meeting place: a patio-like setting where visitors can relax or enter into conversation with each other. Calero is known for scrutinising cultural clichés, especially those...
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