27.03.11 15.05.11 Samson & Koopman, Woodburn & Polman

space 1:
SAMSOM & KOOPMAN
CORNELIE SAMSOM, Drawings on board
Once when Cornelie Samsom was about eight years old, she saw a flea under a microscope. A tiny creature no larger than a pinhead suddenly turned into a fleshy bug, bathed in light. It appeared to swim in a bright, infinite space. For Samsom this was an important visual experience. Apparently there was much more than her naked eye could see. Something she thought she knew what it looked like, turned out to be completely different.

As an artist she still like to zoom in on humans and animals, such as the coat of a horse or the movements of a woman on the street. She is interested in skin, posture, anatomy and body language.

In drawings she explore the reality versus the (deformed) perception of the human body. Born and raised in a culture where the pursuit of physical perfection is so common and where mind and body are still regarded as separated, she is curious about how the body is represented in the human mind and vice versa.

In the images different types of beings co-exist in one area: human and animal, dead and alive, damaged and intact. Samsom tries to work through the surface of an image by drawing, painting, scratching, carving and burning on paper and wood. During the work process, parts of the drawing will be covered with paint, while others will appear again after scrubbing or sanding the surface. Limbs loom up from the background or fade away. Various limbs, postures and body parts form a new body or space with no boundaries. Perhaps it is therefore better to describe them as physical spaces.

Her work process is characterized by a varying concentration. At times it seems almost aggressive, such as when a drawing is literally scratched in wood. This aggression often goes smoothly into a delicate and tender method. Sometimes there is an analytical, almost meditative attention while working on an ear, muscle or abstract space. Samsom work seems to accommodate two different alters or poles: hypersensitive and clinical. In a way it is about a dialogue or struggle between emotionality and rationality.

HARRY KOOPMAN, 
Objects, ceramics
Harry Koopman works as an artist/designer in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. His work mostly is moving into two fields; the figurative arts and furniture design. The two disciplines complement each other conceptual and visual and show a personal aesthetic vision. It is expressive, dynamic, colourful, narrative and visual in material and technique. It has a strong graphic character with an obvious love for the world of customizing and the contemporary Japanese visual culture.

space 2:
POLMAN & WOODBURN, photography
JORGEN POLMAN, photography