Main Partner
The animated sculptures of Isabelle Andriessen (b. 1986, Haarlem) operate like a window into science-fictional worlds. Executed in ceramics, aluminium, epoxy, and stainless steel, her works are governed by material entities that appear to be passive or dormant yet their output reveals grim reality, in which materials have agency, transgressing them into resilient species withstanding and surviving violent environments. Through their pores and cracks, fluids are seeping and leaking, to subsequently crystalize on the surface and to continuously change and shred their outer layers. Activated by cooling engines, chemicals and other physical material interactions, Andriessen’s work is an attempt to redefine apocalypse, not only as an inhospitable darkness, but also as a fertile source for new flourishing entanglements. The sculptures compelling anatomies affirm the dialectic relationship between the abject and the arousing that are being shaped by grief, loss, and horror. Andriessen opens up the liminal space between performance and sculpture, and inhabits it with a cast of characters forming an ever-changing speculative landscape. Some of these slow material performances last a few months, while others continue to develop over years. As such, Andriessen challenges notions of permanence and posterity considering the collection and preservation of art.
There’s something uncomfortable and eerie about witnessing an inanimate object leak, splur or ooze, when you don’t expect it to – it’s slow perfromance shows resilience to seemingly hidden forces.
Enjoy a video conversation between Isabelle Andriessen (artist) and Berthold Pott (gallerist), part of the Present Future section of Artissima Voice Over - Language: ENG - SUB ITA