How different was it to work in the space of Probe compared to other exhibition spaces?
For me, it was the first time to work in an exhibition space. I usually work on stages or in rehearsalspaces or industrial sites. However, probe is unique amongst all exhibitionspaces. Its limitations opened new possibilities within physical and spacial dimensions.
What did you want to create in Probe?
I realised that by doing probe #4, I would be the first one to undo the space of it's illusional size. A weightless world was my my starting point. As a dancer, to lift off from the floor and maybe not return to it is the summum of a physical dream. This way, a woman with unlimited gravity possibilities was dicovering a claustrophobic room. Which made it very fragile. It was very enriching working together with Suze May Sho. The space, colours, costume, sound... I enjoyed being taken off to a visual world that I would not have created by myself.
What obstacles did you run into?
So, obstaclewise, the fact that sometimes I would find myself into a less flattering costume, or a less practical costume could have been an obstacle. (vanity)
In preperation of Probe #3, Ruth van Beek presented her work in a baby version of probe at PlaatsMaken during the exhibition 'over schaal en tijd' (concerning scale and time), march 2010.
Who would have guessed that the contemporary buildings of Greece’s expanding provincial towns would provide study material for architectonic explorations? Yet it was here that, in the concrete frames of houses-under-construction, an architectural exploration began into the foundations of structure. Before they are plastered in white and pink and hung with all sorts of tasteless ornaments, the Greek concrete skeletons are like modernist buildings, not unlike those of Mies van der Rohe. For the artist Oscar Lourens, they form a perfect study into the essentials of the use and the dimensions of space.
Like Darwin did in South-America with biological specimens, Oscar Lourens did in North-east Greece with houses under construction: he registered and captured them, in Lourens’ case with the use of a digital camera. Back in his studio, Lourens meticulously reconstructed the buildings from the images on a 1:20 scale. Lourens’ aim however, was not solely to collect and file the buildings, but to investigate what would happen with the meaning of an object when it was resized and placed in a different setting.
Indeed, instead of copying the original structure, the reconstruction transformed the object. Even though Lourens never deviated from the original photographic blueprint, the result of his work was no longer the original semi-manufacture, a house on its way to completion, but a completely new and finished product. The model turned out not to be a model at all.
One of Lourens’ study objects was the prototype of all buildings: ‘Glikoneri’. It was probably a garage-under-construction in the village of Glikoneri in Greek Thrace, and it was perfect in its simplicity. ‘Glikoneri’ had all that is needed for a house, nothing more and nothing less: four columns and a roof on a concrete foundation. Oscar Lourens made models of ‘Glikoneri’ in a 1:10 and 1:20 scale, as well as a 1:4 model. The latter was interesting. By resizing the original to a 1:4 for scale, the archetypical building of Glikoneri was transformed into the basic structure something completely different. In the setting of Lourens’ studio, Glikoneri became a life size table.
The PROBE exhibition is an exploration of dimensions, in which everything – the exhibition room, its doors and all the works of art – is made on a 1:4 scale. Oscar Lourens exhibits the Glikoneri models in the PROBE exhibition room. But for PROBE he needed to make a model of the first model. The PROBE models relate to the actual structure on the scales of 1:40 and 1:80 – tiny cubicles of only 3.25 cm high.
In the PROBE exhibition something interesting happens. When all dimensions are resized in the same way, nothing happens in the eyes of the observer. In harmony with each other, the changed dimensions uphold the appearance of the original size.
But what will happen when this harmony is broken and an odd-sized Glikoneri is placed in the room? Oscar Lourens added the ‘table Glikoneri’ to PROBE; A 1:4 model in a 1:4 exhibition room. And indeed, in the scale confinement of PROBE, what appears to be a table in real life, transforms back into the garage. Quod erat demontratum: it is the relative size, not the actual that renders meaning to an object.
text by Dirk Hilbers
For Probe#1, we invited Peggy Franck. She began by building an installation with in the confines of the small space at our studio, which she documented subsequently.
Reproductions (large prints) of the first installation were used as a basis for a second installation in Probe at the Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem, where Probe was on display during the manifestation Made In Arnhem INVITES. The registration of the installation as a whole took place at the museum. After completion we asked Peggy to describe some of the experiences she had with a quarter scale exhibition space.
How different was it to work in the space of Probe compared to other exhibition spaces?
PF: In my studio I construct sets with objects and materials such as tape, paper, plastics and paint. Through spatial abstraction and theatrical lighting –causing shadows and reflections– I try to create an atmosphere that brings all these elements together. Then I choose several frames and take photographs. From these pictures other works are derived. Photo-objects, paintings and partial installations, together they make an entire installation.
When making an exhibition I start with a scale model of the exhibition space in which I move around miniature versions of the prints or models I wish to display. I only start working on the actual installations when I can start working in the exhibition space. In this rather intuitive process I take the space like it’s a sheet of paper. Objects become shapes. Materials like tape, brass and laths become lines. For Probe I decided to not deviate from my usual working process. Only this time I started making arrangements and taking pictures inside of Probe as a start. So Probe became my studio first. This is normally not the case with other project spaces where I have only a couple of days or a week utmost to work in the actual space. Technically the small space of Probe made it easier for me to work in a direct and intuitive way. It was very pleasant to build up an exhibition without running into obstacles or having to invent difficult constructions to eventually get to a result of the same character.
What did you want to create in Probe?
PF: In my work, or in my installations or exhibitions, I began to more and more overlap the whole space. It went from pictures on the wall to objects, to installations against the wall, to floor filling installations. Probe gave me the possibility to create a ‘ceiling work’, which is a new step for me. And it has been my wish for some time to experiment with different lighting in my installations. Light or the atmosphere I create through light, plays an important role in my photography. The ceiling work is built up with transparent color filters and plastics. Above the ceiling we made a light-construction. The light construction together with the ceiling made it possible to experiment with different light situations. Underneath, inside Probe, I made arrangements and made photographs. When I took the photos I also included parts of the ceiling. The work as a whole sort of derived from that ceiling. Normally it starts the other way around: from the floor or from the ground. Now it started form the air. This is a new element for me I’d like to work with more in the future.
So the exhibition displays many objects and a ceiling together with large prints of the photographs. Also the lighting plays a significant part in the entire installation. The exhibitionspace and the controllable adaptable accommodating size of it, gave me the opportunity to surround the viewer by this mental world that I constructed.
What obstacles did you run into?
PF: It’s a whole different experience to work in a quarter scaled situation. Not so much for the photos because I always look into the negatives before I decide at what size they should be printed.
But it was more difficult to think about the installations. I make installations because I find the physical experience of the spectator very important. The viewer or spectator stands inside the installation. The eye is drawn from color to shape, from familiar objects to abstraction, from fragments to its entirety. I’d like to think that this is how a work can develop inside the viewer’s minds, when they’re able to walk around it and watch it from many different angles. The space they walk through represents a world that I’ve constructed. So it’s not only a two dimensional presentation of my imagination.
Of course this is not actually the case with probe as it is too small to walk around. The presentation of its registration is to give a real life impression. This idea was confusing. To create something and at the same time think about how it would work in a real situation was rather complex to me. Especially because I already play with the idea of spatial illusion in my work. I like to provoke some kind of confusion about what is displayed.
While working on probe this confusion hit me straight away. Probe is big enough you can actually move around and work on your knees. So there I was, all of a sudden in this installation, completely surrounded and trying to imagine it being 4 times bigger. To relate to this feeling it was really nice and interesting to read Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland again.
work by Peggy Franck, produced in Probe
