Sybil
With works by Irina Jasnowski Pascual, Agata Ingarden, Charlotte van der Borght, Christiane Blattman, Josefine Reisch, Anne-Mette Schultz, Elana Bowsher, Jenna Kaes, Nora Berman, Greet Billet, Carlotta Bailly-Borg, Eden Krsmanovic, I.W. Payne, and Aline Bouvy. Curated by Laurence Dujardyn.
On the phone, Laurence points at where in the space the works will be, some still in the making, all equally invisible now. Upon entering the gallery space, a photograph by Charlotte vander Borght is displayed on the large left-hand window, on an adhesive foil that is translucent when viewed from inside. A depiction of a cinematic Nevada landscape shows a tumbleweed floating in it, as rootless as it is sculptural. In the staircase, vander Borght presents a sculpture based on variations of the NYC metro seat, that she reformed, inverted, and pigmented into a three-dimensional “canvas”. On the adjacent window, a small square mirroring surface by Greet Billet is attached on both the in- and outside of the glass plane, reflecting respectively the street and the space.
The exhibition is designed in two chapters, the first of which takes place in Brussels while alluding to the second, which will be on view in June at gallery Mascota in Mexico City. Fourteen artists are exhibited here, hinting at a fifteenth invisible artist, the French Mexican surrealist artist and poet Alice Rahon, whose thinking lies at the basis of this exhibition: “In earliest times painting was magical; it was the key to the invisible. In those days the value of a work lay in its power of conjuration, a power that talent alone could not achieve. Like the shaman, the sibyl and the wizard, the painter had to make himself humble, so that he could share in the manifestation of spirits and forms.” Her work is solely present in the following chapter, which corresponds with the underlying notions of ‘beyond’ and invisibility that thread through this very exhibition.
While waiting for a coffee, I ask my witchcraft-friend if she has heard of the figure of Sybil, eponymous to the title of the exhibition. Her eyes light up hearing the name of the female oracle of Antiquity and she says in her usual Italian meter “of-course”, before listing that magical references aside, a chain of mountains is also named after Sybil. She vaguely remembers an
advertisement of its source water showing eyes on the mountains. I like this association in combination with the works exhibited; in 'Sybil', what we know is silk-coated, half-transparent, scale-altered, metamorphosed or unusually paired. The audience is invited to try on Aline Bouvy’s human-sized shrimp costume, made of silk bridal fabric. Christiane Blattman’s heavy boots of plaster, pigment, and wax merge into models of Luis Barragan’s Satellite towers in Mexico City. Anne-Mette Schultz’s toolboxes are wrapped in colorful, printed silk, hinting at gender whilst rendering the tools unusable, and in the basement, Nora Berman presents SparklyMiraclezone, a durational performance live streamed over Twitch in which paintings become portals and ceramic instruments guide ritual acts. Hung from the ceiling, a sculpture by Agata Ingarden constructed with oyster shells is supported by a cascade of office curtains. Blue and yellow UV lights are visible from a tiny window, turning the work into a floating building.
An unframed paper diptych by Josefine Reisch uses text, geometry and trompe l’oeil, combining a box covered in tortoiseshell veneer with writings of tortoises being mistreated to cater decadent taste. Across the room, a mirrored glass panel is painted on both sides with Carlotta Bailly-Borg’s anthropomorphic characters, whose fluid curves show resemblances to Persian calligraphy.
On the columns, two gold-plated ceramic masks make up lamps by Jenna Kaes, marrying functionality with mystical tomb keepers one might find in Egyptian pyramids and ancient Chinese burials. Irina Jasnowski Pascual presents a suite of embossed aluminum sheets, which hold what she terms “re-enactments” of existing drawings, made with a pen without ink. The plates were then used to make rubbings, which are gathered in a zine published by Bunk Club. In the staircase, Elana Bowsher’s painting seems to tap into the subconscious, a depiction that could be read as a flower, brain, or underwater world. I.W. Payne’s wall sculpture echoes an oversized version of a mini butter packet, the kind one might find in a hotel or canteen buffet. In the exoticism and containment of a single use butter packet, where nature is kept and disinfected, the butter becomes plastic like its carrier. And Eden Krsmanovic,
in her first gallery context exhibition, presents a series of whirlwind cosmic feel colored pencil drawings.
The exhibition marks a step into new territories, building upon trodden paths and venturing into the unknown. My friend can’t find the advertisement of the peeping mountains, but I’m happy you all saw it for a moment, imagining it.
Text by Céline Mathieu