“When You See me the I is Gone”

March 16 – May 5, 2024
You are invited to the festive opening of a solo exhibition by artist Kirsten Hutsch

Saturday March 16 | 3PM – 5PM
Art + Drinks
Talk by Jeroen Dijkstra of Livingstone Projects

R.S.V.P.: info@nlisus.com

Exhibition statement

The solo exhibition ‘When You See Me the I is Gone’ features a collection of new work created during a three-month artist residency* at Livingstone Projects in Berlin, spanning from October 2023 to January 2024. During this period, an extensive exploration of the relationship between reality and representation was undertaken through two main series.

Kirsten Hutsch explores the relationship between reality and representation and delves into the inherent ambiguity of human perception and the essence of reality itself. Through various series and mediums, the duality between physical objects and their depictions is investigated, blurring the lines between the tangible real and the artificial. Across the body of work, the conventional notion of interpretation is challenged, prioritizing the act of perceiving over analytical thinking. The aim is to capture the essence of objects in their purest form, allowing them to manifest in their material and sensory ambiguity.

The first series, ‘Inventory Studio Prenzlauer Berg,’ emerged from a desire to uniquely capture the studio during the residency, drawing inspiration from a tradition spanning four centuries of artists depicting their studios as subject matter, a genre especially known from 17th-century painting, of which Rembrandt is perhaps the most famous. Employing a technique where impressions are made of the objects and the studio interior by placing them under primed linen and abrading the gesso surface with sandpaper to reveal the contour of the objects beneath. These canvases function as documentary evidence of the residency, like a ‘mechanical archive,’ embodying tangible memories of the spaces and objects encountered.

The second series, building upon an existing series of Hutsch called ‘Linen’ from 2018, explores the intricate relationship between representation and reality with the focus on the materiality of the canvas itself. By covering a conventional canvas with primer and then painting back the image of the linen, thread by thread, with a small brush, paradoxical anti-images emerge where the subject in the painting coincides with the materiality of the object depicted.

The exhibition gives us a peek into Hutsch’s time in the Berlin residency and offers a fascinating insight to her creative process and her ability to explore the boundaries of traditional artistic practices. It is an invitation for visitors to immerse themselves in her unique world of art and imagination.

*The residency is supported by Mondriaanfonds.