Residency

Artist in residence Hester van Tongerlo

Hester van Tongerlo (1991 lives and works in Weert), started her residency some weeks ago. She covered a lot of grounds by research and reflection. The video work of all the ‘feet in autumn leaves’-pictures has been made and is installed at SEA Foundation’s Project Space. To create an extra layer to the question whether identity can be copied, Hester placed a box with autumn leaves from her own garden in front of the video installation. This way visitors can photograph their own feet in accordance to the feet in the video. By posting their own pictures on social media, accompanied with #copypaste, visitors can become part of the ‘feet sharing’-identity.

I copy therefore I am

Another element of research was the question whether one’s environment reflects one’s identity. Hester worked on a video work that shows her environment in Weert. On three screens there is a 360 degrees’ view of Hester’s surroundings, accompanied with matching sounds. Hester placed an extra layer on top of the videos, which shows her own face. With the usage of her own face, Hester tries to blend the surroundings with herself and to create one identity. Question: does the viewer, by looking at the videos, create an image of Hester that is in accordance to reality? Or do we perceive and imagine something that is not real? In her video and sound installations the artist investigates the boundaries between fiction and reality and dissolves them through subtle gestures, autobiographical inserts and alienation.

Before starting the work period, Hester already made a plan and in Hester van Tongerlo’s Artist in Residence work-in-progress part#1, we highlighted some of the new developments. The way an identity can be copied. Literally. By coping a picture of herself twenty-six times, Hester erased her image – undid herself from her identity. Hester continued to work on this lead, by creating more series. Using different copy machines she ended up with different results. In some series, Hester’s image was erased in just twelve or thirteen in others it took far more copies of copy to delete her image.

The Bridge

In the past 6 weeks of the residency, Hester researched and developed The Bridge, a video work that consists of a compilation of fragments from the same-named documentary. By extracting the plot, Hester creates the atmosphere of a day of leisure in America. One watches a pleasant walk, but is it indeed? The crux of the work only reveals itself after the complete work is viewed and the real context is given. To discover that actually, Hester van Tongerlo constructs and interweaves film fragments into new narratives, that invite the viewer to fill the gaps with subjective memories and knowledge.

Earlier blogpost
Hester van Tongerlo residency – Work in Progress #1

Exhibition
Copy Paste by Hester van Tongerlo
Dates: 11 December – 18 December 2016
Opening reception & book launch 11 December 2016,  3 – 5 pm

Discursive Programme
Screening #1 Like someone in love – French-Japanese drama. The final film written and directed by Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami
Screening #2 An evening of artist films – Selected artist video’s by Roy Russchen & Riet van Gerven

Artist’s book
Copy Paste by Hester van Tongerlo
Edition 20, signed and numbered
Available in our shop and during the book launch at the venue
Euro 15,00