Van Gogh House Announces Cycles Exhibition

Van Gogh House announces Cycles, a group exhibition of new work in response to the house, its existing spaces and objects, by 3 female artists Clara Hastrup (DK), Vibeke Mascini (NL) and Inés Cámara Leret (ES). All three artists spent time in the house across this year to develop their works around natural and mechanical rhythms and processes- electrical currents, cleaning routines, ecological and weather cycles and the chain reactions that are generated. 

During a residency in the Van Gogh House, Inés Cámara Leret has continued her research into landscapes, and the contemporary ways in which we interact with and consume them. Specifically, Cámara Leret has researched afforestation methods in arid landscapes and the fluid barriers between humans and nature. Using paper derived from pine trees, commonly employed in these afforestation efforts, as well as pine sap, smells and oils, Leret has created a series of sculptural works including a handwoven paper picnic blanket.

Clara Hastrup creates absurd, nonsensical arrangements from everyday materials; at Van Gogh House, she has created an intricate system linking the outdoors with the house interior. The live measurements of the wind speed and direction feed directly into the house from the chimney connecting to microcontrollers indoors. The analogue signals are digitally programmed to determine the playback speed of a video displayed on a TV and the direction of a tea cup in its saucer via a hidden motor. As the wind increases, simultaneously the story speeds up and the cup follows the change in direction synchronously – from North to South, or East to West. In these responsive systems, the weather becomes the medium. 

Through Vibeke Mascini’s residency in the Van Gogh House, she investigated the notion of the house being an energetic node that has nurtured artists past and present. Mascini has traced both the current and previous wiring layouts of the house through drawings, conversations with the electrician involved in the house’s renovation and workshops. Her work involves a permanent intervention within the house, by directing binoculars and opera viewers towards the otherwise hidden electricity metre, inviting visitors to look beyond the surface of the house and consider its complex, often invisible infrastructure.

The exhibition presents the idea that this building, and perhaps all buildings, are composed of interconnected, delicately balanced conditions – vulnerable to changing circumstances. It will be an opportunity to question how people can ‘read’ and interact with the house, and where they see the boundaries between technology, historical narratives and nature.

PUBLIC PROGRAMME

The exhibition will be accompanied by a public programme including talks by Art Historian Ben Street, Artist Yingmei Duan and Curator Katie Hill; three sound interventions taking inspiration from the exhibition and house by Rie Nakajima, Rory Salter and Samuel Loveless; a film night by artist Daisy Smith and curator Rufus Rock; writing and painting workshops with Deborah Walker and Quratulain Shams.

Events and exhibition tickets are available to purchase via this link.

Cycles is generously supported by The Wang Family, Art Fund, Embassy of the Netherlands, Mondriaan Fund, Henry Moore Foundation, Embassy of Spain, Danish Arts Foundation, AC/E Programme for Internationalisation of Spanish Culture (PICE).