The incessant, slow falling or, on the contrary, the rapid crash, and the subsequent sudden hard landing are the subject of (anxiety)dreams and mythical stories, such as the fall of Icarus. ‘The fall’ has strong symbolic connotations and depicts a personal decline or decay of nature and culture.
In the exhibition New Grounds, Viewmaster Projects explores the phenomenon of ‘falling’ and the richness of connotations it evokes. New Grounds features eight video works that focus on the falling of the human body, objects and natural elements such as rain, glacial ice and dust. The diverse works engage with each other poetically and sensitively.
Although there is no escape from gravity on earth, ‘film’ can optically manipulate this law of nature. The fall – and the duration of the fall – are delayed, stretched, slowed down, stopped, accelerated or repeated. The selected artists use these cinematic stylistic devices to evoke dystopian connotations while generating layered meanings that haunt, disturb, hypnotise, or enchant. The exhibition may evoke memories of personal dreams or experiences, bringing a smile to the viewer by offering an open ending, showing beauty, and evoking endearment. Some works visualise temporary weightlessness. Other works display a continuous rise and fall, or an endless loop in which bodies and elements keep on falling and falling.
New Grounds: Falling shows work by: Sophie Clements (UK), Sebastián Diáz Morales (AR), Amauta García & David Camargo (MX), Harrison and Wood (UK), Christine Koenigs (NL), L.G. Kramer (NL), Anouk Kruithof (NL).
Curation and texts: Bart van den Boom, Viewmaster Projects.
