Julie Scheurweghs & Ivo van der Bent

30 Ağs 2012
30 Eyl 2012

De Brakke Grond is showing work by Julie Scheurweghs and Ivo van der Bent – two young photographers who share a fascination for the trivial, gently forcing us to take another look at everyday items we no longer notice.

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Julie Scheurweghs-Nature Morte (papillon) -

Julie Scheurweghs: Accidentally on Purpose

Julie Scheurweghs makes probing images. Her photos are painstakingly composed tableaux in which people, animals and objects come together in a state of calm. A stack of pillows becomes a soft pillar, bodies are presented as sculptures, the rising bubbles from a dissolving aspirin tablet hang, frozen in a glass of water. Recurring themes in her work include the fragility of the human body, the beauty of the banal and the paradoxes of life.

Her photos are created in the photographic studio and are subsequently manipulated, giving them a timeless appearance, disassociated from all context. She deliberately makes use of the conventions of fashion and product photography, which she describes as being part of 'the present-day industry, aimed at selling dreams'.

Scheurweghs doesn’t work with long series, but prefers to make stand-alone pictures or diptychs or triptychs. In de Brakke Grond, the will be presenting her photos as sculptural objects which both refer to the practice of the studio photographer and to the domestic environment: displayed on a bookshelf or half hidden behind a net curtain.

Ivo van der Bent: Denk aan mij

At the same time, work will be on display by Dutch photographer Ivo van der Bent. His series Denk aan mij [‘Think of Me’] is an ode to the neglected office plant. Plants that are stuck somewhere under the stairs or in a deserted corner. The large quantities of coffee tipped secretly into the plant pots are not really good for the plants. Van der Bent gives us a surprising glimpse of life in the office – a place where a lot of people spend a great deal of their lives. The use of the flash makes the confrontation with the stifled plants complete.

Background information artists

Julie Scheurweghs (1988, Oostend) studied at Ghent’s Secundair Kunstinstituut and obtained a Master’s Degree in photography from the Hogeschool Sint-Lukas in Brussels. She has photographed for publications such as newspaper De Standaard and different magazines; her uncommissioned work has been included in various exhibitions. Accidentally on Purpose is her first solo exhibition. For more information check out her
website.

Ivo van der Bent (1983, The Hague) studied at the Fotoacademie Amsterdam and in 2006 won the Photo Academy Award. His photographs, which often make something unexpected visible, appear in Vrij Nederland magazine and various other magazines and newspapers. For more information check out his website.

Opening

The opening will be on August 30th at 5 AM.