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Wytske van Keulen Exhibit at MING Studios in Idaho
Through July 9, Wytske van Keulen’s exhibition “Not Somewhere Else, But Here” at MING Studios in Boise, ID, will also feature Joost Conijn, Lucas Lenglet and Thomas Manneke.
Fri, May 20 - Sat, Jul 9 2016
Through July 9, Wytske van Keulen‘s exhibition “Not Somewhere Else, But Here” at MING Studios in Boise, ID, will also feature Joost Conijn, Lucas Lenglet and Thomas Manneke. This project and cultural exchange is generously supported by the Mondriaan Fund.
“Not Somewhere Else, But Here” centers around recent photography projects by MING Studios’ current artist in residence van Keulen: the two-channel slide projection “Sous cloche” and her ongoing series entitled “Stick Holding Branch.” Both projects focus on individuals who deliberately chose their own path in life, following their ideals.
For “Stick Holding Branch” Van Keulen has travelled to Texas, France and Japan collecting representations of these ‘free spirits’, discovering a greater inter-connectivity among those who, for different reasons, turned their back to our increasingly economized and de-spiritualized society.
The exhibition is complemented by American musician Tim Smith (Harp), and the work of Dutch artists Joost Conijn, Lucas Lenglet, and Thomas Manneke – who Van Keulen invited to the exhibition – further investigating the connection between maker and subject within the documentary field.
Although their methods of engagement differ, their exploration of the behavioral logic of freedom and liberation remains cohesive. “Not Somewhere Else, But Here” slowly and quietly investigates the sacredness of ones own interpretation of truth. The intimacy of this collection of works creates an opportunity to experience nostalgia for a place you’ve never been, a world close enough to touch, while simultaneously estranged.
About Wytske van Keulen
Wytske van Keulen was born in 1982 in Bergen op Zoom, the Netherlands. She studied at St. Joost Academy in Breda. In her work, van Keulen uses documentary photography to create autonomous work, focusing on narrative and a certain ‘truthfulness.’ Her work arises from personal encounters, as the Dutch artist is interested in the human condition, the choices people make regarding their personal lives and the results of these choices. Therefore, she portrays people who, for disparate reasons, live their lives as outsides. Her distinctive method of documenting – at once plain and empathetic – nevertheless resists the stubborn tendency toward marginalisation, whether emanating from society or from solitude. Van Keulen consciously engages in a friendship or bond: a relationship distinguished by a remarkable equality, despite the camera’s presence. In fact, the instrument becomes a point of contact, a shared predicament, for the photographer as well as those portrayed. The idea that certain things are to be made visible is a mutual pact that both parties depend on. The camera, so often merely a wedge, thus allows introspection.
About MING Studios
MING Studios is an international contemporary art center and residency program. Their mission is to exhibit, explore and experience contemporary arts and culture. Ming provides exhibition space and resources for featured international artists, whom they support through their Artist In Residency Program and encourage to create new work that is influenced by their experience and collaborations at MING Studios. The studios also serve the local community by hosting innovative programs including workshops and cultural activities, performances, screenings, readings and artist talks.
About Mondriaan Fund
The Mondriaan Fund is a publicly financed fund for visual art and cultural heritage. It supports innovative projects and activities by visual artists, intermediaries (curators and critics), museums and other heritage organizations, art institutions, archives, galleries and commissioning parties. All grants are awarded with a view to promoting the production and presentation of relevant Dutch visual art and heritage in the Netherlands and abroad, where a commercial market is (yet) undeveloped.