Nicky Broekhuysen
The Mediators
Nicky Broekhuysen The Mediators
14 April - 21 May 2016
521 West 26th St, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10001 T (212) 759-7555 F (212) 759-5824 www.davidsoncontemporary.com info@davidsongallery.com
Foreword As a painter uses their brush to create form stroke by stroke, 1s and 0s form the building blocks of both form and meaning in all my work. A simple system of information storage and memory, the binary numbers act as a condensed language, a metaphor that speaks of who we are, the connectedness of things, and the potential for change. The universe is made up of a collection of simple natural systems, which create the complexities of life. A digital, man-made information storage system, the binary system consists of two simple elements – the numbers 0 and 1 – which, when arranged and coded, exemplify and embody the complex structures of human experience, memory, and meaning within our present day society. The theory that simplicity creates complexity has become one of the core ideas within my work. The idea that everything is connected and that nothing exists in isolation also becomes fundamental. The forms and structures within the work can only exist through the relation of the binary numbers to each other. Thus, everything must exist in a dynamic state. In the binary system, the numbers can be continually rearranged and reordered. As in life and nature, the binary code in my work moves with a natural momentum towards evolution and change. All ideas, information, beliefs, and structures that we commit to cannot remain static – rather they exist in a state of shift and change. Potential, another fundamental concept in all my work, becomes evident. Within the binary system lies the potential for everything, depending on how the numbers are arranged and coded. The forms and structures depicted in the works are always momentary, a splitsecond manifestation that can change at any moment. No form or structure is definite, but rather always in continual flux; the potential for the unknown is forever present in the works. However, what becomes evident is that the binary code, which imbues the work, begins to undermine meaning – even though it is filled with it and designed to communicate it. The works take a logical system and make it illogical. The binary code becomes a system trying to find meaning in a world that is essentially chaos. Art and the works themselves then become the search for something beyond the logic of the mind towards a state where there is only openness and ambiguity. These are some of the metaphors and ideas behind the binary numbers that form the starting point in every series of my works. Thus it is not necessary or relevant that the binary numbers are arranged by or contain actual code. Rather, it is the juxtaposition of the ideas that they represent, alongside THE MEDIATORS I (detail) 2014
a certain structural context which creates the substance and dialogue of the series. In The Mediators, this contextual structure is framed around ancient indigenous rock paintings, in particular those of the San Bushmen of Southern Africa. In some of the first historical examples of image-making, the San Bushmen believed that everything in life – rocks, plants, animals, and humans – hold energy. The San Bushmen word for this is ‘ghi’, translated as ‘potency’. When painting the images of animals onto the rocks, they were in fact capturing the energy or potency of what they were painting and storing it in the rock surface. The image and rock itself became ‘Reservoirs of Potency’, or storehouses of energy. This energy was then used by the San Bushmen shamans to increase their own ‘potency’ during trances and healings, a transition between the physical and spiritual worlds. This concept of ‘energy amplification’ was paramount. When painting an animal, they would use the blood of that animal to bind the iron-oxide pigments which depicted it, as this in turn, increased the image’s potency. The San Bushmen approach to the surface of the rock on which they painted was also very different than our contemporary approach to ‘surface’. Unlike today, they did not view the surface as an end point; rather, it became a doorway or access point through which to move between these physical and spiritual worlds. This juxtaposition of the physical and spiritual is fascinating to me. Binary code is the bringing together of opposites in order to create a cohesive meaning. This is much like the very state of existence. Meaning and purpose created through the experience of and juxtaposition of the physical world and the spiritual world side by side. The San Bushmen, like many indigenous cultures, literally and intuitively understood these diametrically opposed worlds, and their culture acknowledged the importance of both states. It is through these core ideas of energy and the image as a doorway that I view this series of works in The Mediators as contemporary manifestations of San Bushmen intentions placed within a current and present-day context and relevance. Using colours that reflect and evoke the rocks and pigments of the rock paintings themselves, the works become mediators between the physical and spiritual. They are the mid-point between these two binary states. Like the San Bushmen rock paintings, The Mediators become storehouses of energy. However the purpose behind the works is not only about increasing the potency of energy but more about becoming aware of the energy itself and of THE MEDIATORS installation view (10th floor)
opening up to it. The works are large, encompassing spaces, like Rothko’s large ‘Energy Field Paintings’, they resonate and vibrate, pulling the viewer into their energetic space. As the San Bushmen saw the rock surfaces and rock paintings as portals, these works, too, become figurative thresholds across which the viewer is invited. The binary numbers in my work have become a metaphor of the soul or higher self – a symbol of that potency which lies alongside our more physical, conscious, and often linear perception of our own existence, and that of the world around us. The binary code contains both the structure and logic of this linear perception as well as the undefined, unexplained, and all-encompassing potential of who we truly are, beyond the fixed physical structures and perceptions of life. The numbers become a creative bridge; the ‘doorways’ become entrances into the experience of self. The Mediators also speak of the connectedness of time. Within the works and the binary numbers themselves, the past, present, and future co-exist simultaneously – there is only the ‘now’. Yet the now is a manifestation of all time. The potency of the works themselves lies in the connection of a contemporary digital language (like binary code), in contrast with an ancient language of image making which, when brought together, forms a powerful assemblage of memory and meaning. The work is also about looking back towards our indigenous roots and remembering a deeper state of connectivity and symbiosis with the natural world around us. The rock paintings of many ancient indigenous cultures achieved this by forming a powerful link between the natural world, the animals, and the people themselves. The Mediators show that nothing can exist in isolation: we can never exist in isolation, our culture can never exist in isolation and the present can never exist in isolation from the past. Nicky Broekhuysen
THE MEDIATORS installation view (9th floor)
THE MEDIATORS I 2016 Oil on paper 78 3/4 x 55 1/8 inches 200 x 140 cm Signed, titled and dated verso
THE MEDIATORS II 2016 Oil on paper 78 3/4 x 55 1/8 inches 200 x 140 cm Signed, titled and dated verso
THE MEDIATORS III 2016 Oil on paper 78 3/4 x 55 1/8 inches 200 x 140 cm Signed, titled and dated verso
THE MEDIATORS IV 2016 Oil on paper 78 3/4 x 55 1/8 inches 200 x 140 cm Signed, titled and dated verso
THE MEDIATORS V 2016 Oil on paper 78 3/4 x 55 1/8 inches 200 x 140 cm Signed, titled and dated verso
THE MEDIATORS VI 2016 Oil on paper 78 3/4 x 55 1/8 inches 200 x 140 cm Signed, titled and dated verso
THE MEDIATORS VII 2016 Oil on paper 78 3/4 x 55 1/8 inches 200 x 140 cm Signed, titled and dated verso
THE MEDIATORS VIII 2016 Oil on paper 87 x 87 inches 220 x 220 cm Signed, titled and dated verso
ROCK PAINTING I 2015 Digital Pigment Print on Hahnem端hle Photo Rad Satin Paper 11 3/4 x 17 3/4 inches 30 x 45 cm Edition 1/3 + 1 AP Signed, dated and numbered verso
ROCK PAINTING II 2015 Digital Pigment Print on Hahnem端hle Photo Rad Satin Paper 11 3/4 x 17 3/4 inches 30 x 45 cm Edition 1/3 + 1 AP Signed, dated and numbered verso
ROCK PAINTING IV 2015 Digital Pigment Print on Hahnem端hle Photo Rad Satin Paper 11 3/4 x 17 3/4 inches 30 x 45 cm Edition 1/3 + 1 AP Signed, dated and numbered verso
ROCK PAINTING V 2015 Digital Pigment Print on Hahnem端hle Photo Rad Satin Paper 11 3/4 x 17 3/4 inches 30 x 45 cm Edition 1/3 + 1 AP Signed, dated and numbered verso
This catalogue was produced in conjunction with the exhibition The Mediators at Davidson Contemporary, New York City, 14 April -- 21 May 2016 All works Š Nicky Broekhuysen 2016 Studio photography by Nicky Broekhuysen and Alison Chandler Blomstrom Catalogue design by Alison Chandler Blomstrom Printed by LOG-ON, Inc. New York, NY