Lisson Gallery is pleased to present its second solo exhibition of work by Marijke
van Warmerdam, opening on 14th May.
The works in Promise relate to van Warmerdam’s continued interest in the
passing of time and the recurring states and actions that exist within it. In the
film, photography and sculpture presented in this new body of work van
Warmerdam employs repetition and the film loop to superimpose the present
with an anticipated future and an imagined past.
The films Weather forecast and Green deal metaphorically with the issue of time
passing. In the panoramic film loop Weather forecast, a bathtub acts as a gauge
for constantly changing weather conditions. As a red room clears of fog rain
begins to fall, made visible by the impact it makes on the surface of the water in
the tub. The rainfall turns into a downpour and dances frenetically upon the
surface as the tub overflows before being dramatically emptied by a large chunk
of ice crashing down from the top of the frame. The rain stops and the ice melts
and as the water in the tub begins to overflow, the room fills with fog...
Read moreIn Green we are presented with a cropped playground scene of children making
and destroying sand cakes in real time. Meanwhile, a single leaf in the
foreground performs it’s own cycle of the seasons, turning from yellow to green
and back again to yellow. These actions take place in a sequence of hours, days,
months or years where van Warmerdam juxtaposes cyclical time in the natural
world against a child’s notion of time passing.
In Now, Soon, and Coming up soon van Warmerdam has photographed the
various stages of bud, full bloom and fallen blossom against the backdrop of a
sheet of white card. Once again, through use of an artificial framework to isolate
parts, van Warmerdam sharpens our perception, challenging us to actively
examine what we see, reconsider it, and notice qualities that are not immediately
apparent, discovering that which is interesting, strange, beautiful and unique.
Marijke van Warmerdam lives and works in Amsterdam, Holland. She was the
representative for Holland in the Dutch Pavilion at the 1995 Venice Biennale.
This year her work is included in the opening exhibition of the new Stedelijk Van
Abbemuseum, Eindhoven. She has had solo exhibitions at The Institute of
Contemporary Art, Boston, U.S.A.; Malmö Konsthall, Sweden; Kunsthalle
Nürnberg, Nürnberg, Germany; Castello di Rivolli, Turino, Italy; Henry Moore
Institute, Leeds, UK; and PS1 New York, NY. Group exhibitions include the
Kwangju Biennial, South Korea; Documenta X, Kassel, and the 1998 Sydney
Biennial, Australia.
The work Weather forecast has been produced by the Baltic Centre for
Contemporary Art in Gateshead.
