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"Ellen Augustynen: Fill Me #2"
2006-01-27 until 2006-03-11
Dagmar de Pooter Gallery
Antwerp, , BE Belgium

Subscribing to something like a conceptual immaterialism, Ellen Augustynen (Belgium - 1958), works hard at making things disappear. More precisely, it is the material structure or support that is rendered invisible, leaving only necessities. What begins as a somewhat simple preparatory sketch can itself become the main work, just as a raw diamond is always already a valuable gem. Complex ideas are taken and fused with rather minimal representation. Indeed, if she had it her way there would be no support for her work.

Fill Me #2 is probably this Belgian artist‚s most idiosyncratic, and at the same time, most personal work to date. To us these linguistic signifiers have no signifieds, as they precariously float in mid-air, only suggesting their respective supports. We think in language and store thoughts in our memory so they may be recalled in the future. Gravity acts on everything, including our memories. Due to its constant force, with the passage of time our recollections sink to memory's bottom and they become weaker. It takes considerable effort to recall them. In this exhibition selected memories are effectively levitated before our very eyes. The effort it has taken to recall them is apparent in their tendency towards collapse. Their appearance is frail: something that can perhaps be traced back to their conceptual import. We can neither physically nor mentally grasp them; either act would destroy them. But alas! Recollection is as imperfect and selective as it is private. These memories are like untold secrets in that they carry with them covered up truths. Indeed the distortion of the passage of time -the great memory-keeper- has had its impact on what we see.

Generally, Ellen Augustynen favours memory over matter. These words, phrases, exclamations etc. are residues of events, stenographical memes that have been living and ripening in her unconscious memory for years. Through a metamorphosis these residues have grown and matured - just like their bearer. For this exhibition at the Dagmar De Pooter Gallery she has let them rise, through recollection, to the surface and put them on show.

(text: David Ulrichs)

IMAGE
Ellen Augustynen
Asbak
Installation of "found" objects on tables
 © Photo:Ellen Augustynen


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