McBride Fine Art has invited CCNOA, a platform for non-objective
art based in Brussels, to make a clean slate of the profligacy of imagery,
political and social, commentary or cultural allusions (codes?), as it is often
in evidence in a gallery, which has a focus on photography. Two artists, Tilman
and Ward Denys, who work with site-specific installation, have both applied the
camera to their specific craft.
Tilman leads the life of a nomad in the international art circuit, mostly building his work on location. Since his early days as an artist, Tilman employed the camera as a reductionist tool. This allowed him to define gradation of light and color to the extreme. Next to this phenomenology, the investigation of the situation of an object in space eventually integrates the work within more architectural intentions. We, as individuals have a need for such focus on the theoretical or existential essence. - Just as entire societies have demonstrated in the past, - when they renounced the graven image. The show contains two large format photographies (each 240x130cm) and a series of 5 images (20x30cm). Also see: http://www.lookawry.com
Ward Denys utterly transformed the gallery with a cardboard and wood structure. It resembled a building services tract – one of those non-descript places contained in even the most flamboyant architecture (including the flip chart board, ventilation tracts and air-conditioning units). The exhibition, however, now consists of a single photograph of the same construction, before the actual ensemble was removed. Begs the question what lies in an experience of dealing with such a space – what of this physical experience is contained in the photograph etc..? (Lamda Print, Edition 1/3)… Also see: http://www.warddenys.be
Please refer to the text of Petra Bungert, who curated the show, for a more complete introduction to the work of both Tilman and Ward Denys.
Shawn McBride, Antwerp,
2nd September 2008