My role: assisted Roos Holleman in curating the show as a part of Aarhus Center for Visual Art
Artist: Roos Holleman (NL)
Artist Statement:
By drawing I celebrate my curiosity for the preserved and collected specimen, as well as its history of representations. I visualize these as filters surrounding such objects, the filter created by the museum's display and depot being especially significant to me. In the depot's universe chaos is organized and labeled, compressing the specimen to a strangely anecdotal form. Drawing it allows me to take part in its history, like another kind of collector or explorer. Often I blow it up to man-size to make the experience a kind of encounter, both in detail as in scratchy cacophony. Every drawing, however fragile, withholds the promise of eternal thought and movement. It is the static object wherein I look for the element of myth and vibrancy. Playing with its form and tactility gives the drawing an opportunity to exist not only as another filter in the lineage of representations, but also as homage to the moment of discovery.
By drawing I celebrate my curiosity for the preserved and collected specimen, as well as its history of representations. I visualize these as filters surrounding such objects, the filter created by the museum's display and depot being especially significant to me. In the depot's universe chaos is organized and labeled, compressing the specimen to a strangely anecdotal form. Drawing it allows me to take part in its history, like another kind of collector or explorer. Often I blow it up to man-size to make the experience a kind of encounter, both in detail as in scratchy cacophony. Every drawing, however fragile, withholds the promise of eternal thought and movement. It is the static object wherein I look for the element of myth and vibrancy. Playing with its form and tactility gives the drawing an opportunity to exist not only as another filter in the lineage of representations, but also as homage to the moment of discovery.
The exhibition was supported by Godsbanen and Aarhus Center for Visual Art.
You can also check out the exhibition LIMBO, which also featured Roos Holleman.
Photo credit: Roos Holleman & Sasha Rose Richter