Sensory Spaces is a series of commissioned solo projects presented in the Willem van der Vorm Gallery, located in the freely accessible exhibition space in the museum’s entrance hall. Artists are invited to respond to the architectural qualities of the space, emphasizing notions of transformation and surprise.
Each exhibition in the Sensory Spaces series is accompanied by a detailed brochure.
Click here for Sensory Spaces 3 - Elad Lassry
Elad Lassry, born in Tel Aviv in 1977, and now living and working in Los Angeles, is creating an installation for the third Sensory Spaces. This is the first time a Dutch museum has featured his work. Elad Lassry focuses on the workings of the photographic image, both on a two-dimensional plane and in three-dimensional space. ‘Pictures,’ says Lassry, ‘are so very like what we see, and so very unlike what we see.’ He strips the photographic image down and plays with the individual elements that make up each shot—focus, depth, color, and scale. Recognizable images and the meanings we ascribe to them are called into question.
Many of Lassry’s photographs also contain formal elements. As well as geometric cut-outs, he places rectangular elements that resemble plinths in his photographs. Lassry recently started showing framed photographs with colorful silk ‘covers,’ which, like the geometric forms on the photograph, partially obscure the image. The geometric sculptures in Lassry’s installations serve the same function as these frames, shapes and covers.
This game of abstraction extends to their presentation. His photographs are framed in wooden frames, often painted with brightly colored gloss paint that corresponds to the main color in the photograph. The frame adds an abstract element to the work. The accompanying label explicitly includes the frame as part of the artwork, thus transforming the framed photographs into spatial objects consisting of a photograph and a frame. The geometric shapes and silk covers reinforce the notion that these are not simply framed photographs or collages, but three-dimensional objects.
Perception is also central to Lassry’s installation for Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. The three freestanding sculptures are both decorative and functional. They function both as barriers to perception and as ‘viewing stations.’ As we move through the space we discover how the sculptures influence our perception of the photographic objects on the walls. Our eyes and movements are directed through the installation as a dancer’s movements are dictated by the choreography.