19 maart tot 16 april

Driessens & Verstappen, Morphogenesis, 19 maart - 16 april 2005

The many facetted oeuvre of Erwin Driessens (1963) en Maria Verstappen (1964) shows a strong fascination for processes of growth. Either in artificial intelligence programming or observed in nature itself. The artist's couple studies and generates various structures in nature (Frankendael), artificial intelligence (computer programming), but also in chemistry (etching and galvanising).

The Morphoteque-series # 13 and # 14 are prominent examples of these different approaches. In Morphoteque # 13 small, everyday objects are cast (in tenfold) in brass and changed by the effect of opposite chemical processes, through which they have either partly been etched away or have added metal to their shape by means of electrolysis. Morphoteque # 14 shows a same development of shrinking and growing, only now the recognisable form of the objects has shrunk or swollen as a result of organic processes. The original object is made in alginate, a gelatine-like algea, that either shrinks when exposed to warmth or swells with added sugar and yeast. The nickel-plated results of both series make for a seemingly fluent movement of cast stadia in transition.

The Amsterdam park Frankendael is the protagonist in the project Frankendael, that was documented on nine different locations during a year. Using software developed for the purpose, these photographs are edited into a flowing movement which reveals the changes in the seasonal transformation of the landscape.

On display and in print, the recently developed softwareprogram E-volved Cultures registers its own evolutionary process. Written by the artists, this software is able to adapt and generate new programming. These new programs then generate a dynamic two-dimensional image, in which eight artificial creatures can be seen as they manipulate their surroundings at pixel-level.

In their work, the computer doesn't merely function as technical support only. In the generating of the various processes one cannot always recognise the personal touch of the artists. Driessens & Verstappen seem to aim for an artform in which the artist has minimilized its own presence. All attention is focused on the processes of producing, developing or reducing of structures. The generating of form as such has priority and results in a powerful and multi-layered imagination.

Ephemerality, change, accelerated and frozen time, the generating of selfgenerating systems, natural or artificial - the body of work of these artists enhances itself and investigates again and again a different aspect of the same topic.

""We build nature into a system en show it as a system itself, with the intent to develope a different vision. That is the challenge. To ourselves, and to our era."" Quote by Driessens & Verstappen in an interview with Anna Tilroe in NRC, 19th of October 2001.

At the opening of the exhibition (19 maart 17-19 uur) a book is presented with a survey of the work of Driessens & Verstappen of the period 1995 till 2005. The book can be ordered at the gallery for € 22,00 + € 5,00 package and postage.
2005