SURFACE TENSION
Duo exhibition of Kirsten Hutsch and Esther Jiskoot
Opening: December 14 7 – 9 PM
December 14 2018 – Jan. 27 2019

Kirsten Hutsch
The works of Kirsten Hutsch investigate the relation between the real and the image.
Our eye only glides over the surface of things. Our automatic perception of the world
bounces off of the surface tension coating the real. It goes around them and does
not enter into them. For this exhibition, Hutsch will show a selection of works from
recent years. Across a variety of mediums, these works pose the ambiguity of the
essential reality of the physical object on the one hand and the inherently artificial
nature of their depiction on the other.

Esther Jiskoot
Jiskoot’s work has its roots in her fascination for the human condition.
In the works made for this exhibition she focused on men’s struggle to set himself free
and find or hide one’s own identity.
Crossroads, choices, coulisses, explosions, light, insight, and connections play a role in
the recent works. Jiskoot added the technique enameling to her wide range of tools.
Most of the techniques and materials she uses have a relation to domesticity and craft
and the role they play in self-empowerment.

In the artists’ work the surface plays an important role, but most importantly is what lies
beyond the surface. The surface is the key to a certain reality. While Hutsch’s approach
is more philosophical and Jiskoot’s more intuitive, they are both deeply fascinated by
the intrinsic value, ‘the molecules’, of the materials they are working with. They are
questioning the extensibility of a surface: what penetrates through and what remains on
the surface, but also what the function of the surface entails: is it binding, shielding or
just granting access. Through deconstructing and ’reviving’ the materials Hutsch and
Jiskoot come to certain outcomes.