• Press Eject and Give Me the Tape
  • Matt Bryans, Marcel van Eeden, Pieter Engels, Alexandra Leykauf, Jean-Baptiste Maitre, Christine Moldrickx, Navid Nuur, Nick Oberthaler, Oscar Abraham Pabón, Cornelius Quabeck, Machteld Rullens, Robbert Weide, Martijn Hendriks, Ehsan Ul Haq
    26 March – 8 May 2021
  • Press release

    Deep in the discography of the band Bauhaus, there is a surreal moment of fourth-wall breaking; following the end of a track - the sound of a cassette being removed, the click and rattle of plastic extracted from a tape player and passed to some unseen hand. This is a moment that, rather unusually, reveals the structures, materials and spatial dimensions of the environment. After a year of closures, seemingly endless immersion in bits and bites, networked but dissociated, the audience is invited to engage once again in such a moment - one of material awareness: body amongst matter and dimension. In collaboration with all the gallery’s represented artists and more Press Eject and Give Me the Tape is both a rupture in this passivity and a rapturous celebration of the senses: soaking in one’s surroundings; reviving the experience of material, texture, weight and surface - no longer neutered in transition to JPEG.

    The uncanny relationship or sleight of hand that can take place when experiencing an artwork, is a form of alchemy present throughout the exhibition. In the work of Machteld Rullens, that which was once fragile and disposable is both elevated and petrified. A departure from her usually rich and vibrant tones, her work here is made of weathered bronze: these bold yet hollow structures present moments of pause in the lifecycle of the disposable - the cardboard box becoming contemporary artefact. Similarly, Oscar Abraham Pabón sources material from the worlds of construction and architecture. Pabón’s work bears a material history: ceramic tiles mass-manufactured for Barcelona roofs. Their path is disrupted as they are engaged by Pabón with ceramic processes usually alien to them, glazing and re-firing in enamel. These new forms bleed colour and surface into structure as the materials interpolate one another in the furnace. Running parallel to Pabón’s explorations, the work of Matt Bryans embodies the mindset of someone thoroughly entranced by material transformation. Bryans seeks out unpretentious materiality: the prosaic and oftentimes organic. He employs burning, hammering and sanding, labour-intensive interactions that drive matter through human processing, into works that carry signs of the hands in their history.

    Likewise, Edith Dekyndt places affect of material at the forefront of her practice, materials accumulate colour, dust, scars and breakages over time. Dekyndt’s work captures these echoes and passes them onwards. So too does Christine Moldrickx’s work emanate this aura, objects as vessels of emotional burdens, pasts and messages. These are but a few examples of the importance of sensing, by relating to an object from multiple angles, through multiple senses. Equally driven by place and material, the works of Ehsan ul Haq and Navid Nuur delve into humorous, experiential and semiotic questions. Their playfulness provides levity whilst simultaneously frustrating the mind: how do we relate to living and non-living beings? Altogether the works presented seek to induce a quake of the senses, in the folds of the fingerprints, retina, sinuses and taste buds. Thus, allowing for a deep inhalation into the nervous system that has so long sat in static geometries staring into square planes and sunk in a glassy data gel, now free to exist in space.

    Horse (2013), Ehsan Ul Haq, Inkjet print on cotton rag, 76 x 100

    Exhibition view "Press Eject and Give Me the Tape"

    Exhibition view "Press Eject and Give Me the Tape"
    (left to right)
    The Morning as Night (2011-2018), Navid Nuur
    Underground 15 (2018), Edith Dekyndt

    Exhibition view "Press Eject and Give Me the Tape"
    (left to right)
    Untitled (Open #8/Yellow) (2021), Nick Oberthaler
    NYC is a Graveyard (2004), Cornelius Quabeck

    Untitled (Open #8/Yellow) (2021), Nick Oberthaler
    Acrylic on paper on canvas
    50 x 40

    NYC is a Graveyard (2004), Cornelius Quabeck
    Pencil on paper
    29.7 x 21

    Exhibition view "Press Eject and Give Me the Tape"
    (left to right)
    One Side - Bronze Box (2021), Machteld Rullens
    Landing Hare with Flowers (2021), Jean-Baptiste Maitre
    What's in a name? A New Name (1977), Pieter Engels

    Landing Hare with Flowers (2021), Jean-Baptiste Maitre
    Acrylic and ink on canvas
    85 x 95 cm

    Exhibition view "Press Eject and Give Me the Tape"
    (left to right)
    Corner Problem (2020), Oscar Abraham Pabón
    Fromthelandofwolf, Reincarnated Cloud-Based Hangover (2021), Robbert Weide
    You Must Be Careful in the Forest, Broken Glass and Rusty Nails (2009), Christine Moldrickx

    Exhibition view "Press Eject and Give Me the Tape"
    (left to right)
    Paul Joseph Constantin G. (2019), Alexandra Leykauf
    Untitled (2021), Marcel van Eeden
    Corner Problem (2020), Oscar Abraham Pabón

    Exhibition view "Press Eject and Give Me the Tape"
    Foreground left to right:
    Night Bowl (2018), Navid Nuur
    Horse (2013), Ehsan Ul Haq

    Fromthelandofwolf, Reincarnated Cloud-Based Hangover (2021), Robbert Weide
    Metal, metal wire, digital print on paper, epoxy resin, ink

    One Side - Bronze Box (2021), Machteld Rullens
    Bronze Patina
    30 x 25 x 9 cm

    Untitled (2017), Navid Nuur
    Sandpaper and graphite on paper
    36.5 x 47.5 x 4 cm

    Exhibition view "Press Eject and Give Me the Tape"
    Left to right:
    One Side - Bronze Box (Black) (2021), Machteld Rullens
    Fromthelandofwolf, Reincarnated Cloud-Based Hangover (2021), Robbert Weide
    Untitled (2021), Marcel van Eeden
    Untitled (Open #9) (2021), Nick Oberthaler

    One Side - Bronze Box (Black) (2021), Machteld Rullens
    Bronze Patina
    29 x 34 x 8 cm