ARTISTS Sara Blokland Biography Sara Blokland (1969) born in Ede in The Netherlands, lives and works in Amsterdam. Her work was included in several (solo) shows: "Interiors", Museum Het Domein, Sittard NL (2000), "fam." Fries Museum/Buro Leeuwarden, NL (2001), "Neutrals" Kabinetten v/d Vleeshal, Middelburg NL (2002), "Link" Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam NL (2003), "Turbulence" CCA Kiev, Ukraine and Museum for Modern Art Arnhem, NL (2003) and "Domestic Circle" Erasmushuis Djarkarta, Indonesia (2005). She has received several grants and fellowships like De Vleeshal assignment (1999); MamaCash-award (2001) and Netherlands Fund for Visual Arts, Architecture and Design (2004). Exhibition at LMAKprojects Fam. Abstract
Fam. Abstract explores the representation of the concept of family. In individual portraits she shows a family staging themselves. The obscure, almost mysterious nature of the scenes, turn the viewer to a voyeurist, peeking into the "private areas" of this family. A publication of Fam. Abstract is available. Press Release Fam Abstract is a series of portraits of members of a same family, in which each person is photographed individually in the family's shared indoor environment. The portraits present staged situations based on the individuals' natural poses, postures and personal boundaries, in order to reveal their self-image. With this series the artist attempt to explore the physical relations between the family members, their bodies, and their poses. The photographs, which are mainly enlarged Polaroids, are taken without direct contact between the camera and the subject. The individuals appear to be lost, disconnected, or even alienated from each other. The family relations are rebuilt through the unique size differentiation of the prints and their arrangement on the walls of the gallery, which almost resembles a page in a family photo album. Also on view is Blokland's latest project: Father’s Paradise, which is a seelction of more than forty images of a garden. In the middle there is a man, the owner of the garden. Over the past ten years he photographed his garden. In Father's Paradise Blokland researches the role and esthetics of a personal archive. Sara Blokland's work forces the viewer into the narrow space between voyeurism and real intimacy, and thus it is brutally honest and even explicit. She examines the way photography and video witness events, and investigates to what extent images derive their meaning from the context in which they have been created, what are the roles that certain aspects such as 'pose' and 'privacy' play in the interpretation of the spectator, and what is the meaning of photographic ‘credibility’ of images.
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Upcoming exhibitions Sara Blokland: New works Van Zoetendaal Gallery, Amsterdam, NL Links: www.sarablokland.com |