Studio visit: Peter Downsbrough
On a simple wooden base in his studio lies The Ideal Notebook – not some kind of innovative laptop, but a small, thin copybook as a wonderfully anachronistic sculpture. The US artist Peter Downsbrough (born in 1940) has spent the last several decades working on sculptures, film, drawings, collages, photographs, audio, video, models, and books that give expression to his intensive investigation of and in-depth reflection on (urban) space, language, and their mutual relations. In 2003, on boulevard Emile Jacqmainlaan, he added a piece of sculpture to the cityscape. AND / MAAR, OP - AND / POUR, ET is like an accent placed amid the architecture and aesthetics of Brussels: with its pipes, letters, and two large rectangular frames, the work interacts with its environment and with passers-by – so successfully that many people walk by or even through it without noticing it. That quiet fading into the surroundings is not so much planned as – in Peter Downsbrough’s own words – “a very interesting by-product of the process. It’s quite alright. We don’t all see everything.
(© Heleen Rodiers)
I start with the idea of a sculpture, of putting an object in an environment, and I redact that down to the question of two lines, just a gesture in the space, where it becomes part of the environment. If you take it out, you miss it, but at the same time you don’t know what you miss.” Despite the sometimes monumental form of his interventions, Downsbrough’s work is reserved and subtle. He gives his short, occasionally cut words (such as “as”, “in”, “back”, “here”, and “there”) and formal gestures room to play. The viewer/reader becomes witness to an expanding arsenal of possibilities. Downsbrough’s working space, too, is stripped down to the bare essentials.
I start with the idea of a sculpture, of putting an object in an environment, and I redact that down to the question of two lines, just a gesture in the space, where it becomes part of the environment. If you take it out, you miss it, but at the same time you don’t know what you miss.” Despite the sometimes monumental form of his interventions, Downsbrough’s work is reserved and subtle. He gives his short, occasionally cut words (such as “as”, “in”, “back”, “here”, and “there”) and formal gestures room to play. The viewer/reader becomes witness to an expanding arsenal of possibilities. Downsbrough’s working space, too, is stripped down to the bare essentials.
(© Heleen Rodiers)
His studio, in a house in Molenbeek where he and his partner, Kaatje Cusse, have lived for the last twenty years, is characterised by a strikingly neat sense of organisation. The large open spaces are occupied by homemade cupboards and tables, a wall full of materials, and a few computers; his trusty Pentax is within reach. He works here on, among other things, digital mock-ups and models, some of which stand against the wall, carefully crated; dozens more are stored elsewhere. For his video work Downsbrough goes out on the streets, where he plays so beautifully with rhythm and repetitiveness that you can almost hear it. Last year, the Antwerp arts centre deSingel devoted a retrospective exhibition to the more than 80 books that the pioneering Downsbrough has already made, all of them “volumes to walk through with your fingers, your eyes”. At the Congres/Congrès station in Brussels, until 25 January, you can see an exhibition that consists of a screening of Downsbrough’s 2000 film OCCUPIED and a new audio work, OCCUPY, a collaboration with Stephane Ginsburgh.
His studio, in a house in Molenbeek where he and his partner, Kaatje Cusse, have lived for the last twenty years, is characterised by a strikingly neat sense of organisation. The large open spaces are occupied by homemade cupboards and tables, a wall full of materials, and a few computers; his trusty Pentax is within reach. He works here on, among other things, digital mock-ups and models, some of which stand against the wall, carefully crated; dozens more are stored elsewhere. For his video work Downsbrough goes out on the streets, where he plays so beautifully with rhythm and repetitiveness that you can almost hear it. Last year, the Antwerp arts centre deSingel devoted a retrospective exhibition to the more than 80 books that the pioneering Downsbrough has already made, all of them “volumes to walk through with your fingers, your eyes”. At the Congres/Congrès station in Brussels, until 25 January, you can see an exhibition that consists of a screening of Downsbrough’s 2000 film OCCUPIED and a new audio work, OCCUPY, a collaboration with Stephane Ginsburgh.
(© Raisa Vandamme)
Read more about: Expo
Fijn dat je wil reageren. Wie reageert, gaat akkoord met onze huisregels. Hoe reageren via Disqus? Een woordje uitleg.