Prints of honeycombs seem to contain a message from the bees to mankind. Ulrich Haug complements this message with script that responds to the bees' message. Pieces from the series 'Sedimente', the slow erosion of the earth captured in wax, are on display. Marja Kennis makes new flowers from prints of wilted leaves in German porcelain. Just as fragile and transparent as the original flowers would have been. They seem to tell us that nature, despite its fragility, will find new forms to survive.
Marja Kennis has made a series of portraits of hybrid flowers; flowers that have arisen after crossing different species.
The white flowers are like a new beginning, without colour, bare, built up from the leaves of various wild and garden plants, plants that have lived in the Netherlands for a long time. Not indigenous, but adapted to the (micro) climates in which they grow. Combinations of coltsfoot with rudbeckia, torch and plantain, hosta and dandelion, brunnera and fig, all sorts of combinations are tried out. They look as if their prime has passed, they are almost finished flowering. As if they have come to life from a wallpaper, blossomed out and frozen in time again.
Beauty has a right to exist even if it is temporary. These flowers are often the end point of a long line of hybrids that cannot continue like this. Although, you never know which combinations of characteristics will return.
For this series, she used German porcelain because it refers to a romantic tradition, is very transparent and allows her to achieve the weathered effect of faded flowers.
Ulrich Haug:
‘We all know how important bees (insects in general) are to the continuation of our species and to the entire ecosystem. The whole global warming and the coming climate change on us concerns me for a long time very strongly.
In the work "Lettering" I deal with it. It is about putting human "expressions" and those of the bees on an equal level. In my texts I deal with this topic in a very personal way. Therefore they are not completely free readable, but in many areas encrypted. Nevertheless, I would like to emphasise the "signature" of the bees and strengthen it with my own thoughts.’
Galerie Franzis Engels Nieuwevaart 200,1018ZN Amsterdam +31 6 31000323 Open: Thu - Sat 13.00 - 18.00 contact@FranzisEngels.nl
Contemporary art in the Centre of Amsterdam