With works by Edith Dekyndt

The daadgalerie presents in May / June the first institutional solo exhibition in Germany by Belgian artist Edith Dekyndt.

The materials, sensations, and natural phenomena listed in the title outline some of the reoccurring and relevant elements for Dekyndt’s work. She isolates organic and inorganic materials such as minerals, blood, and yeast, letting these react individually or with one another, thereby instigating processes that she then terminates at a specific point in time. Reminiscent of scientific experiments, these condensation-, fermentation-, fungal- and crystallization-based processes develop inside vitrines, on canvases, in Petri dishes, or on carpets. The strong material presence of her work is characterized by the sculptural and painterly qualities of transformation and decay and the unique dynamic nature of the respective materials and objects.
These transformative chemical and physical processes do not yield objective analyses. Rather, more critical is a highly subjective curiosity and the need to hone her own perceptions and those of the viewer vis-à-vis the objects and phenomena she has selected. Here the uncanny, what is proliferating and unstable provide a counterpoint to the strangely fragile beauty of her work.
A key work in this exhibition, Laboratory 01 (capillarity with coffee) (2015), was presented earlier this year in her solo exhibition at the Wiels Contemporary Art Centre in Brussels. Dekyndt soaked the bottom edge of a curtain with coffee, which after drying revealed a delicate trace of the capillary process as drawing on the light-hued fabric.

Edith Dekyndt (*1960 in Ypres, Belgium) was a guest of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program in 2015.
She lives and works in Tournai and Berlin.

Credit: Sven Laurent