Vanessa Billy ‘Solid Cloud’(2016) heated and sandblasted bronze (detail). Courtesy of the artist and BolteLang, Zurich.
‘Slow Objects’ is an exhibition that brings together the work of three outstanding artists who each explore the relationship between material and process, time and transformation. The exhibition includes a selection of new and recent works by Vanessa Billy, Edith Dekyndt and Erin Shirreff, artists who share an interest in both natural and pseudo-scientific processes, alchemy and labour. ‘Slow Objects’ includes video, photography, sculpture and installation, exploring the relationship between image, surface and form and the way we perceive and understand objects.
'Slow Objects' installation view, The Common Guild, 2018. Edith Dekyndt 'Slow Object 02' (1997/2016), fabric stretched on frame, bread dough. Vanessa Billy 'Les fonds qui pleurent' (2017), nylon net, bio-resin, dye. Erin Shirreff 'Medardo Rosso, Madame X', (1896/2013), colour video, silent. Photo: Ruth Clark.
Vanessa Billy is known for sculptural works that utilise a wide range of familiar substances including waste materials, residues and discarded objects that suggest human activity and question our relationship with the world around us. Her practice is grounded in the physical qualities of these materials, providing a base from which to explore alchemical processes and cycles of energy and activity.
Residues also feature in the work of Edith Dekyndt. Familiar materials such as salt, sugar, bread, milk, lemons, earth and blood are used in unfamiliar ways, testing substances through a variety of natural processes – including fermentation, absorption, desiccation and decay. Traces of these experimental processes are recorded in the work, which ranges from video and sculpture, to performance and installation.
Erin Shirreff’s work explores the material and temporal qualities of objects and images. Working with photography, video and sculpture, her work blurs the distinction between object and image to explore the process of recognition. Her works suggest the passing or understanding of time and enables what she describes as “a drawn out encounter” with the object.
Vanessa Billy (born 1978, Geneva) lives and works in Zurich. Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Dear Life’, Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris (2017), ‘We Dissolve’, Kunsthalle St. Gallen, Switzerland (2016), 'Sustain, Sustain', Collective Gallery, Edinburgh (2014) and ‘Three times a day’, Kunsthaus Baselland, Muttenz, Switzerland (2011).
Edith Dekyndt (born 1960, Ieper, Belgium) lives and works in Tournai and Berlin. Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Air, rain, pain, wind, sweat, tears, fear, yeast, heat, pleasure, salt, dust, dreams, odors, noises, humidity’, DAAD Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2016), ‘Ombre indigène’, Wiels, Brussels (2016) and ‘Théoreme des Foudres’, Le Consortium, Dijon, France (2015). Dekyndt participated in 'Viva Arte Viva' the 57th International Art Exhibition curated by Christine Macel for La Biennale di Venezia, Italy (2017).
Erin Shirreff (born 1975, Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada) lives and works in New York City. Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Halves and Wholes’, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland (2016), ‘Erin Shirreff’, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Mass. (2015) and ‘Pictures’, Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, B.C. (2013).
Project Details
Read the Commentary by Chris Fite-Wassilak –
Engagement
Slow Objects took part in Luminate, Scotland's Creative Ageing Festival.
