Curators statement The show consists of sculptures and paintings that were made between 2010-2016. A selection that evokes imagination. The common way of looking at things do not apply to these art works. In general artists question and probe reality. The conventional images that are supposedly been draped over reality do not convince artists. They see and perceive things differently. Artists also have the ability to see and present structures where there are none. They try new shapes that move us. By doing so artists show us new ways to apprehend the world. In particular this is true for Lisa Couwenbergh. She sketches and re-works the core that touches upon the soul that lies in hiding. The artist’s ways are subtle and strong encounters therefore can happen in this solo exhibition “Under the Skin”. The works stage the eternal emergence of images of no name, no form and unnamed matter. Yet the works address, whisper and speak to us like ghosts from an unnamed past. Actually looking at the mounted exhibition I was thinking of the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze who believed that the focus of understanding life was not memory and the past, but the use of "signs" to understand and to communicate reality. The works of Lisa Couwenbergh illustrate how objects evoke feelings through imaging. Sign making is a bitter necessity to be aware off. The visual language of this artist uses strong “signs” to lure the soul out of it’s burrow. In fact everybody is triggered. Everybody has endured loss and exclusion. Thoughts and feelings of lost loved ones, loss of affection, loss of homeland and loss of innocence. In this exhibition Lisa Couwenbergh works recapture everything lost and give it connection. Thus saving these feelings from destruction as they are handed to us in works of art with a velvet skin that have been carefully build and intuitively composed.
Riet van Gerven February 2016
Project Space Tilburg – Gust van Dijk
11 June 28 August 2016
Dream Gouache on paper, 2016
Luna Ceramics and pencil, 19 x 19 cm, 2014
Moss Mixed media, with flock, 24 x 19 x 8 cm, 2010
The Book Acrylics on paper. 95 x 65 cm, 2012
Under the skin Gouache on paper, 105 x 230 cm, 2016
set into mind as big blobs of ceramic crystals
untouchable the depths remain
drip from eye to eye
masked yet present (closer)
and lovecraftian horrors reside
posed or set in stone
in cupboards and tomes
are a myriad of possibilities
surfaced into embossed
slip into mind
branches bones
into pages into paint
all reside all remains
and into mind again
and seeds of living beings widely awoken
Souls Gouache on paper and one sculpture. 150 x 90 cm, 2014
Relief Plaster, 21 x 14 x 4,5 cm, 2012
Nature Cabinet Acrylics on canvas and wooden frame, 135 x 130 x 40 cm, 2014
Sculpture Painted, mixed media, 46 x 43 x 30 cm, 2009
Books Acrylic on bardboard, 2014.
Sculpture, with flock. 100 x 110 x 33 cm, 2005
Interpretation is a matter of questions, not answers One of her works hangs on the main wall of her living room and almost instantly catches your eye. Earth-like colors in gouache combined with shapes that both seep into the canvas or seem to be on top of it. The sculptures attached to the painting strengthen this optical illusion. A pair of bones and a skull looks cartoonish in its simplicity. Together they indent the room as a pair of threedimensional icons. Lisa Couwenbergh started out as a painter but gradually incorporated sculptures in her work. She thinks that her paintings have always resembled something like sculptures. Her lines are rarely even and gain presence through their shading. Her depictions are anything but anecdotic. They are abstract shapes turned into something tangible. According to Couwenbergh some people consider her work to be deep, while others think it’s light-hearted. Is her work with skull and bones a light-hearted wink at death? One could see the ironic touch in the cartoonish display, but death is still a serious subject. Or is it nothing more than a playful combination of shapes, colors and material? The artist struggles with questions about the meaning behind her work. To her it’s a matter of interpretation and it’s those different interpretations that make her work interesting. Couwenbergh makes us realize that depiction means creating illusions and that interpretation lies hidden in both the viewer and the work itself. You can leave interpretation to what happens between work and viewer, not to what an artist says or what a writer thinks they needs to write. Of course, some elements can’t be denied, whether it’s a book, an eye, a face or a book, but the real meaning doesn’t lie in the literal depiction or in what we consider to be serious or lighthearted art. Interpretation happens in the moment when people and art interact.
Š SEA Foundation 2016 www.seafoundation.eu SEA Foundation (SEA) is a private, non-profit, artist-run initiative that initiates and coordinates events, residencies and exhibitions. SEA provides on-going space for production, presentation and research. In all their activities the organization is fueled by visual arts. Transgressing the boundaries between different cultures and disciplines, SEA always puts context and the idea before the medium. By working in different cultural contexts worldwide, the foundation generates discussion by exposing and intervening within, as well as being part of, cultural processes that concentrate on current (emerging) social, political and ecological issues. SEA supports these processes in becoming more productive and solid by transforming them into in long-term working relationships and provides continuous support to guide these temporary projects in society, arts and culture.
Artist Lisa Couwenbergh http://www.lisacouwenbergh.com Curator Riet van Gerven www.vangervenvanrijnberk.com Designer Yanda Li & Weiran Han Text and poem Robert Proost www.robertproost.nl Translation / Editing Teun de Rooij / Rowena Mehefin Office assistant Debbie van den Broek Printwork Mezclado, Tilburg SEA Foundation Jan-Willem van Rijnberk Chair Without our volunteers, sponsors and donators, who are dedicated to supporting SEA Foundation and artistic production, our activities could not be possible. Thank you. Š 2016 SEA Foundation www.seafoundation.eu Project Space Tilburg – Gust van Dijk Tivolistraat 22, 5017 HP Tilburg, The Netherlands Tel +31(0)13 54 44 495