Beyond the Vanishing Point
Beyond the Vanishing Point
In the context of the city festival ‘New Horizons — Dieric Bouts’, artist Joseph Thabang Palframan was invited by the City of Leuven to develop a commission that answers to the question ‘what does justice mean to you?’. The same question was asked painter Dieric Bouts, 600 years ago, by the aldermen of Leuven. In 1468, he painted the tryptique ‘The justice of Emperor Otto III’ for the newly finished townhall. His work had to remember those in power of the importance of their judgment and decisions. Today, Palframan opened up the question and invited six independent artists, all tied to the city of Leuven in their own way, to reflect in group on this topic. The outcome of this joint residency trajectory, titled ‘Beyond the Vanishing Point’, will be a public programme in the Leuven town hall starting on the 14 of December and ending with a two-days presentation on the 13th and 14th of January.
Beyond the Vanishing Point
The vanishing point emerges when two lines converge into a single point. It is the point beyond what the eye can see, in essence, the boundary of our gaze. Beyond the vanishing point is an invitation: to see beyond our own perspective(s), to see the other side. It is a collection – of varied stories, gazes, ideas, that when balanced together house the ability to generate more whole histories, more lenient truths, and more understanding narratives.
Perhaps the point where lines cross within our perspectives extend outwards and converge again, along different lines, at different points. We can begin to map out our intersections, each perspective sitting within their own range, seeing only what they can see (the points along which they cross). We can begin to look at intersectionality this way, some gazes (scopes) are wider, perhaps they cross multiple points, and some gazes are smaller. It is simply a matter of how wide your perspective has allowed you to see.
“The term “emerging artists” has been popping up a lot recently. It is used to describe the “new” , the “young”, or the “not yet established” artist activity coming into our arts landscape. It is essential to recognize where artists are emerging from, to better understand what they want to emerge into. When debating this topic in the Leuven City Hall, this particular group of artists considered words like “underground”, “off-the-grid”, “outsider”, “local”. Understanding this is just the beginning of this conversation, “independent” seemed relatively appropriate. “Independent” not leaning towards the individual but recognizing the singular efforts that make up the complex whole.”
Artist involved
Aya Koné: Aya’s work often deals with the confrontation between culture / heritage / identity and the environments one functions within. A body in conversation with its surroundings. Her practice develops as a method of repair using repetition, re-translation and retrieval.
Boran Verstraete: Boran is a conceptual, installation and performance artist based in Tienen and Brussels and working in Leuven.
Collins Yirenkyi: Collins is a painter who works between kessel-lo and Antwerp. He works mainly in painting but also runs a fashion label ‘Loop of pain’.
Jente Waerzeggers: Jente is a multidisciplinary artist who works with photo, video, sound and text.
Joseph Thabang Palframan: although mainly working with paint, Joseph’s practice is fluid and site-specific. So far his work has mainly been about identity, post- and pre-colonialist aesthetics and race theory from the ground up.
Lynn Havaux: Lynn’s practice takes place in two main phases: finding materials, and then putting them together as a sculpture or installation and the organic movement and material that she finds important for further experimentation and process that all blend together in her work.
Olivier Diels: Oli is a painter who explores mixed heritages and justice and injustice within contemporary society. The metaphor of the unstable ladder often plays a role in his work.