The world writ small

Lees de Nederlandse versie

Galerie Meessen De Clercq is currently presenting two solo exhibitions devoted to artists who work with maquettes and scale models of architectural spaces. Katrín Sigurdardóttir from Iceland makes models, using plaster and wooden sticks, of the apartments she has lived in. This is work about memory, in which it seems she wants to bring her own past back to life. She is also exhibiting models of buildings that were never constructed in Reykjavik. On the basis of plans in the city’s archives she makes scale models of those houses. Once they have been completed and photographed, she destroys them by setting them on fire or demolishing them. In a process of destruction and construction, she then goes to work on the debris. Her work has its merits, but leaves the visitor feeling a little short-changed. For her part, Sarah Bostwick uses an ancient technique, that of finely chiselled low relief (bas-relief), which she employs to create contemporary cityscapes. In the current show she presents a handsome diptych with a view of New York from the water. The New York skyline is not immediately obvious, but after a while one recognises the Chrysler building. The advertising panels and FedEx cargo on a boat bring the viewer back to the present. The work’s sensory approach reaches a climax in the reproduction of textiles – as in a handsomely draped sail on a boat – and in a work entitled Katonah. The latter is a depiction of a village near New York that the artist has deliberately left unfinished – you can still see the prints of her fingers in the material. The texture of her low reliefs creates handsome effects of light that vary according to the time of day. Bostwick’s art is subtle and tactile; its delicate technique makes it seem to belong to a different era. And at the same time it is unmistakeably contemporary. The combination with Sigurdardóttir’s work results in a successful exhibition overall.

KatrÍn Sigurdardóttir: Relics & Sarah Bostwick: Actual Space
> 12/4, di/ma/Tu > za/sa/Sa 11 > 18.00, gratis/gratuit/free,
Galerie Meessen De Clercq, Abdijstraat 2A rue de l’Abbaye, Brussel/Bruxelles,
02-644.34.54, info@meessendeclercq.be, www.meessendeclercq.com