Test Assembly: additional information

Additional information on a few specific art works in ‘Test Assembly'

James Turrell's ‘Celestial Vault' by night is the introduction to the exhibition Test Assembly. Panorama Kijkduin. The night leads to a different awareness of the natural environment. The night is the domain of delusion, of the increased perception, of the hallucination and the dream. The work ‘ Celestial Vault' by James Turrell is not only visited by art enthusiasts and day trippers, but also by the dope blowing youth, New Age followers and rabbits. Everyone is experiencing and looking for something different in this particular area. The artists who are brought together in ‘Test Assembly' show different aspects of the four keywords forming the starting-points of this exhibition: light, perception, nature and science.
Publication 'James Turrell Celestial Vault'  (€ 23,-) is available at Stroom.
More on 'The Celestial Vault' on the Stroom website.

Gabor Ösz, Ault Onival, 11.6.2000, exposure time 4h45mins en Ault Onival, 12.6.2000, exposure time 9mins3sec
Gabor Ösz was struck by the architectural structure of the Atlantik Wall. He visited many locations including Ault Onival in France. Architecture, landscape and photography come together in his project ‘The Liquid Horizon' (1998-2002). Both photos shown in ‘Test Assembly' are part of it. \
With some small interventions Ösz changed the bunkers along the Atlantic coast of Europe into huge camera's obscura. A camera obscura is a camera where the incident light is directly ‘fixed' on photo-sensitive paper, no lenses nor negatives are used. These bunkers ‘overlook' the sea. Of course. The peephole is minimized to a ‘pinhole' and the incident light finds a huge sheet of paper on the back  In the unshakable bunkers, photos are made which - due to the slow exposure time - sketch a dreamy, atmospheric landscape. In this contrast lies the poetic beauty of ‘Liquid Horizon'.
www.gaborosz.com

Tacita Dean, The Green Ray, 2001
When the sun sets, in a very clear horizon, with no land mass for many hundreds of miles, and no moisture or atmosphere pressure, you have a good chance of seeing the green ray - a short pulse of green light.

Tacita Dean talking with Jeffrey Eugenides:
JE: I think you said that you got the green ray in the film, but it never appears in any single frame. But you can see it momentarily when the film is running. Is that right?
TD: Yes. The film is 24 frames a second but you can't isolate a single frame that has it. (...)
JE: Does everybody see the green ray when they see the film, or does it happen too fast?
TD: No. That's what's nice about it, because otherwise the film would just be about a phenomenon. But in the end it's more about perception and faith, I think.(...)
JE: Did you always see it?
TD: This is really interesting, because I filmed it on this beach in Madagascar, and there was this couple who were hanging around. They didn't see the green ray, and they'd videotaped the sunset to document it. Then they replayed their video to me for proof that it wasn't there. But I was absolutely convinced that I had seen it, so it had to be on my film, which was optical and analog. When I got the film back, it was very, very faint, and I had to really push it to get more color in the film, to bring out the green ray. But it's definitely there. It's not a fiction. Some people think the green ray is an illusion, but it's not.
Tacita Dean entrusted Arno van Roosmalen (Stroom) with: 'You have to LOOK!!! ( in the deep sense).'
www.frithstreetgallery.com
www.mariangoodman.com

Jonas Staal en Vincent van Gerven Oei, Against Irony, 2008
Longterm loan to Stroom Den Haag
The work 'Against Irony' has a permanent presence in Stroom's exhibition space. The loan agreement with the artists stipulates that the work is part of every exhibition organized in this space. The work is not selected or realized from the thematic framework of the exhibition 'Test Assembly'. But the argument against non-commitment and distance underlines the commitment to which the viewer is invited by the works in this exhibition.
www.jonasstaal.nl
www.vincentwj.nl

Frederik de Wilde, Hostage pt. 1
The letters pt in the title ‘Hostage pt. 1' stands for prototype. The work you see here is a prototype for the final painting ‘Hostage', a manifestation of the blackest black that can be made at this moment. The Belgian artist Frederik de Wilde works at the interface of art and science. For ‘Hostage' he sought cooperation with the Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology of the Rice University in Houston, Texas.
The surface of ‘Hostage' consists of carbon nanotubes that reflects only 0,045 % of the light. The painting is part of De Wilde's research on the most basic materials of our existence, atoms.
www.frederik-de-wilde.com

Harold Chapman, Brion Gysin's Dreamachine, 1961
A portraIt of Brion Gysin (1916 - 1986) with his invention, the ‘Dreamachine'. In a clear image how ‘Dreamachine' should be observed. Gysin was a painter, writer, performance artist and sound poet.
His wide range of radical ideas became a source of inspiration for Beat Generation artists and their successors such as David Bowie, Keith Haring, Brian Jones, Mick Jagger, Genesis P-Orridge, Iggy Pop, Laurie Anderson,
Wikipedia on Harold Chapman
www.topfoto.co.uk/gallery/haroldchapman

Brion Gysin. Dreamachine, manufactured by 10111.org
Harold Norse in "City Lights Journal" (1960s): ‘dreamachine spins around and round opening up hash visions and colours as it crashes the sight barrier and changes cells of the brain'.
Wikipedia on Brion Gysin
http://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions

Germaine Kruip, Counter Composition III, 2008
Theo van Doesburg sought freedom from the strict principles of composition of Piet Mondriaan, by creating more dynamic by means of diagonal lines and ‘out of balance' primary colors. For ‘Counter Composition III' Germaine Kruip copied the painting Contra-Compositie V (1924) by Theo van Doesburg, cut it into pieces and let it fall apart. As, like Germaine Kruip puts it, "the ‘Universal Truth of the Stijl' falls apart - or like the search to it is in motion. I liked to make a mobile out of it as a reference to Moholy-Nagy who was also working with light, movement and reflection."
www.germainekruip.com
www.depaviljoens.nl

On the long table you will find several publications and articles on the  artists and general information related to this exhibition. Publications of some participating artists are also for sale.

 

James Turrell, Hemels Gewelf
photo: Gerrit Schreurs

Gabor Ösz, Ault Onival, 11.6.2000, exposure time 4h45mins en Ault Onival, 12.6.2000, exposure time 9mins3sec
photo: Rob Kollaard

Tacita Dean, The Green Ray, 2001 (courtesy: the artist, Marian Goodman Gallery, Paris/New York; Frith Street Gallery, London)
photo: Rob Kollaard

Frederik de Wilde, 'Hostage pt. 1' (Painting made of carbon nanotubes that reflects only 0,045 % of the light)
photo: Rob Kollaard

Harold Chapman, Brion Gysin's Dreamachine, 1961
photo: Rob Kollaard

Dreamachine', cardboard replica, limited edition, manufactured by 10111.Org (original created by Brion Gysin, early 1960s)
photo: Rob Kollaard

Germaine Kruip, 'Counter Composition III', 2008 (courtesy: The Approach, London)
photo: Rob Kollaard