After the long break RAUMX is reopening during October with two artists: Netherland based José Heerkens and British artist Lucinda Burgess.
Exhibition opening Thursday 21.10.2021 running until 6.11.2021 opening times: Saturdays 2pm – 6pm and by appointment
Both works have in common a rather minimal, reduced and meditative outlook where single elements like squares of paint or short cut metal rods define a whole. Like in a dialogue paint and natural canvas are carefully balanced in José Heerkens work. The canvas is the carrier but also an element of colour in itself.
In Lucinda Burgess sculptural pieces she uses materials like miled steel or glass in a very reductive, pure way, where through repetition one becomes aware of the subtle differences in each single element .
Lucinda Burgess : “I emphasize transience: the constantly changing nature of materials and the constantly changing nature of the viewer’s direct experience.
I choose materials that are capable of dramatic visual transformation: wood, steel, paper, liquid and glass. By putting these materials through the same process repeatedly, I highlight the infinite variety, unpredictability and lack of control that are so characteristic of the natural world. The use of repetition serves to underline the truth that there is no repetition in fact.
By incorporating natural processes such as rusting, burning or reflecting, there is an implication that change is inevitable and cannot be avoided. The requirement, for example, that mild steel be repeatedly polished in order to maintain a reflective surface accentuates the fact that nothing ever stays the same, regardless of any desire to hold it still.
Through the use of a minimalist aesthetic, the greater simplicity, geometry and uncomplicated display of materials allows the viewer to more easily appreciate change and difference at a subtle level.
In recent work the emphasis has shifted to the ever changing nature of direct experience, as opposed to the notion of a permanently existing art object. Thus circumstance and context become integral aspects of the work. The ‘same’ thing is repeated and placed in two different situations; a threshold and a wall. The changing context affects the way in which each is perceived and experienced so that it is not the same thing in fact. Lucinda Burgess
In José Heerkens statement she writes:
” Every painting I make is a step on a long road, a response to the intense process of looking, thinking, searching, making, discovering.
The painting process is complex: colour, form, material is directly connected with space, light, movement. It always asks that I look new and completely.
It is in particular the colour and its exact dosage that leads me further in my search for space, for simplicity, for emptiness and form, for openness. Besides colour, which is immaterial, materials like paint, linen, cardboard, are a constant challenge.
I work on concepts at the same time, simultaneously, and one concept can go on for several years. For example This Afternoon started in 2018 and has not yet ended. This Afternoon has its own scale. The concept Pilgrimage started in 2017 and is ongoing on linen, cardboard in different sizes and dimensions.
The pure linen that I work on I stretch and then prepare it transparently. This makes the material and the colour of the linen an essential part of the painting and must be taken into account.
José Heerkens
September 2021
