Wilfried Lentz Rotterdam

Hans de Vries,  Anastasia Kiseleva and Su Yang, Observations From Dwelling, 18 September – 16 October 2021

Wilfried Lentz is pleased to present Observations From Dwelling, with works by Hans de Vries (b. 1947, Broek-onder-Akkerwoude, NL), Anastasia Kiseleva (b. 1998, Russia) and Suyoung Yang (b. 1993, South Korea). (scroll downward for installation images)

Observations From Dwelling presents works that are the result of the artists’ personal systems of observation, experimentation and communication with their natural-domestic environments. Common to the three artists, across a generational gap, is a close attention to finding and making visible moments of the ‘alledaagse’, the ‘everyday’. In their respective experiments with natural materials—plant matter, wood, porcelain—de Vries, Su and Kiseleva each develop systematic processes which nonetheless invoke a reverence for the world we inhabit that approaches the spiritual.

Hans de Vries’ Stijgbeelden (Rising images) are recordings taken by the artist of fruits, vegetables and seeds over several years in the early 1970s: “an image of plants by plants”. Made by processing the plants into liquid, soaking paper, and then colouring and fixing the resulting ‘patterns’, De Vries would then have the images photographed. These photographs are stapled to larger sheets, accompanied by handwritten notes on the plant, as well as the time, date and meteorological conditions.

The Stijgbeelden are informed by teachings of bio-dynamic agricultural practices, and form just one part of the artist’s study of how to visualise changes in the environment around him. For this close attention to slow or tiny changes in the environment, de Vries’s work was associated with a ‘micro-emotive’ tendency in contemporary art of the 1970s (a term coined by Piero Gilardi). But, beyond the aesthetic currents of the art world, de Vries’ intention in sharing his observations was communication: to re-awaken in the audience a consciousness of the importance of the natural environment.

Anastasia Kiseleva’s work explores geographical formations of spirit, looking to the history of magic and to the interrelation of pagan beliefs with technological development. Her hand-built porcelain works resemble both root systems and skeletal structures, suggesting the systems of support and nutrient-transferal that sustain both animal and non-animal life. Presented alongside are a series of photographs of actual animal bones, supported by a choreographed human body in a night-time scene. Kiseleva’s works leap by association to mycelium, and the almost supernatural, invisible forms of communication that occur below-ground between the root systems and rhizomes of plants and fungi.

Suyoung Yang works with wood, clay, paper and textile to recreate certain atmospheres, drawing from domestic environments to suggest alternative modes of sensing and being. Her processes move away from the representational, to a more phenomenological apprehension of the spaces we inhabit. Through carving or modelling, she transforms a given material into the shape of another, distancing them from their usual logics and our automatic associations. Often working in a site-specific way, Yang sets objects into a syncopated rhythm.

Hans de Vries is self-taught in art and in farming. His work was included in the group exhibitions ‘Douwe Jan Bakker, Sjoerd Buisman, Krijn Giezen, Hans de Vries’, the Dutch Pavilion Venice Biennale, Venice (IT), 1978; ’11 Da-Eleven Dutch artists’, The Fruit Market, Edinburgh (UK), 1974; Biennial de Paris de Jeune Artists, Paris (FR), 1973; ‘Sonsbeek buiten de perken, (Sonsbeek beyond the pale)’, Park Sonsbeek, Arnhem (NL), 1971; and ‘Binnen en Buiten het Kader, environments en situaties van jonge Nederlanders’, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (NL), 1970. De Vries chose to stop producing art at the end of the 1970s. In 2016, a retrospective exhibition and monograph of his work were produced by Krist Gruijthuijsen for Kunstverein. He lives in Denmark.

Anastasia Kiseleva graduated from the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, in 2020; and in 2022 will pursue Master studies at the Olso National Academy of Arts (NO). Her work has been shown in exhibitions at LIFE, Rotterdam (2020); Roots Film Festival, The Hague (2020); EYE Film Museum, Amsterdam (2019); and TENT, Rotterdam (2018).

Suyoung Yang graduated from the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, in 2020 and began the Master program at the Oslo National Academy of Arts (NO) in 2021. Her work has been presented at the Exhibition Space Q, the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen (2021); Dharma Initiatives, NL/AU (2020) and Billytown, the Hague (2019) and Old School, Glasgow (2018). 

The (soft) opening takes place on Saturday 18 September from 2–7pm. The exhibition runs until 16 October, 2021. The gallery is open Thursday through Saturday from 2pm–6pm and by appointment. For further information and visuals, contact the gallery: office@wilfriedlentz.com.