Two generations, two worlds, two approaches and a multitude of materials come together in dialogue in Hectare’s new exhibition.
A regular at the gallery since Miroir Miroir with his reworkings of camera lenses, Jiro Kamata (b. 1978, Hirosaki, Japan – lives and works in Munich) propels them into new dimensions. These ‘optical gems’, once destined to capture light and preserve memories, now give way to laboratory-grown quartz. The real and the unreal pass through the sensory portal of his Celestial Eyes. Mutations, distortions and reflections take centre stage in a parallel world inspired by astronomy, mythology and spirituality.
Extreme meticulousness and the utmost attention to detail are echoed in the illusions – very different, yet equally fascinating – created by Benedict Haener (b. 1992, lives and works in Lucerne, Switzerland). Under the title Kill your darling, from sandpaper to sugar cubes and sour sweets, the artist reinterprets the everyday, pulverises precious materials, initially devaluing them only to imbue them with new value through unique pieces that are wildly technical and irresistibly playful.
Whilst each of these creators’ approaches embodies a pop aesthetic that is resolutely contemporary, they nonetheless contain a nostalgic or fantastical element woven into their work.
It is at this intersection that the scenographic collaborators of Trouble parfait come into play. Through the speckled ceramic of her photo frames, Léna Babinet (b. 1994, Paris – lives and works in Brussels) creates a disruption. The image is missing; the reflection is absent. What remains is the object – recognisable as ever – and its intimate mystery, its vibrant presence, its familiar strangeness. As if freshly picked, Olga Flór’s (b. 1995, based in Eindhoven) sunflowers capture the fleeting and the shifting at the heart of a boldly impure eternity.
