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Hannelore Van Dijck is finishing up her newest book, to be launched on May 9th. Following her residency at FLACC, Genk, the artist created ‘Een vogel vliegt op’, a book about her recent ink drawings.
The only way I know how to describe my impression of Hannelore’s works is through an analogy of standing on a beach and watching waves slowly building towards you. First it begins with a full view from a distance. It is sublime and whole, with so much going on that it all weaves into one system. Then you see the details: the wave, the ink strokes, the charcoal smears. They come into sharper focus as you zone in on it, and but the periphery begins to elude you. This experience intensifies as more details catch your attention – the texture, the layers, the minute difference between each centimetre. What was once a blanket visual experience from afar quickly escalated to an onslaught of different details jumping in and out. Like a wave coming at you, it starts subtle, distance, and below the surface, and it becomes almost overwhelming, then at some point you are engulfed in it.
‚Een vogel vliegt op’ Hannelore Van Dijck
a new chapter
Following her last publication, which concluded Hannelore’s exploration on space and time, the artist began searching for „what’s next“. Beginning with being a keen observer again, she roamed the streets of New York during a residency period, paying attention to what may inspire her. She came to notice that life is often shifting in and out of sight. Perhaps someone appears around a corner and vanishes behind a tree, or a car drives by and was only in sight for a split second, or an ambulance is heard from a distance but was never seen. This comes into sharp contrast with a museum or gallery experience, which she described as „a broadcast“. Everything in an exhibition is laid out, for the viewers to get a full and clear experience. She was intrigued by the movement of life, and the ambiguity of it, and decides to dive into this for this project.
Hannelore Van Dijck ‚Wenn Sich der Nebel Hebt‘ 2013 Galerie Zink Berlin Mitte
The artist is known for her installation works with charcoal drawings, which usually fill the walls of a room and encases the visitor. For this next chapter in her oeuvre, she steps beyond the white cube walls. Her inspiration from the city streets was amplified when working with a group of artists who worked a lot with sound. As sound pierces through a wall, it creates an environment not limited by physical barriers. It is like a cloud that is permeable and dissipates, echoing her observations of things coming in and out of sight as she walks around. So for this new project she experiments with ink as a medium, starting with some doodles in her notebook. The ink is an exciting new step for the artist because it seeps through the paper and becomes part of the fibers, unlike charcoal that sits on top of the surface. It becomes a full immersion physically and conceptually.
Hannelore always painstakingly explores the physicality of her surface – the wall, or floor, or paper, or fabric – through her marks. She does not simply portray what she sees, or purposely recreate the sublime. Instead she distills the experience of encountering a space, a wall, a sound, a city. It is something ordinary that we are all familiar with – existing in space, listening, but for us it is just what it is. Rarely do any of us consider „what does seeing feel like, really“. What a strange thing to even contemplate. The feeling of certain things are taken completely for granted as it is part of our existence, but Hannelore extracts that and puts it physically in front of us. It is fully abstract and conceptual, yet completely tactile and physical.
a new book
When I told Hannelore about my wave analogy of experiencing her work, she was excited to hear my understanding of it. What’s more, is that this idea of a wave is also a perfect symbol for how this project came about. Starting with a motion, walking or an undercurrent, things start to take shape. It was never about the final expression, but it was just the natural progression of the initial motion that a wave or a book emerges.
‚Een vogel vliegt op’ Hannelore Van Dijck
‚Een vogel vliegt op’ Hannelore Van Dijck
Her newest book is described to „crystallise her search for a fluid way of working, a search for movement, rhythm and leaks“. Not unlike Hannelore’s in-situ room drawings, the book has pages and pages of her ink on paper drawings, filled to the very edge. This book is an exploration on this new topic. It might feel slightly vague and hard to grasp, as images of her works are interspersed with her notebook drawings and text that don’t provide much context. But that is precisely where Hannelore is at with this. This book is an important step towards the next stage in her artistic career, and a vulnerable display of her thoughts.
On May 9th at 3PM, there will be a conversation between Nikolaas Demoen and Hannelore Van Dijck. This conversation will also be streamed live on facebook and instagram.
Details of ‚Een vogel vliegt op‘
128 pages, 21 × 30 cm
€ 35,00
ISBN 978 94 9126 242 5
Text by Leonie Rodrian and Bob Vanden Broeck