AMSTERDAM.- In this site-specific architectural installation, Saskia Noor van Imhoff approaches de Appel arts centre as the site of an artificial archaeological excavation. Similar to visiting an archaeological site and interpreting findings from different earth layers, you will find objects created by the artist above and below the surface of the exhibition floor. These objects are connected to one another in a network of associative meaning. In archaeological excavations time (history) reveals itself through the stacked layers of earth. Knowledge and stories are concealed in accidental remnants; a broken vase, a part of a building, a metal spearhead. Saskia Noor van Imhoff’s installation is similarly layered and rich in thought and meaning.

In her installations, van Imhoff explores how artefacts and works of art are collected, preserved, managed and interpreted, and consequently, the status and value we attach to the objects and systems that surround us. She does so by revealing to her audience those aspects of museums and archives that are usually invisible. As she zooms in on processes of conservation, reconstruction, replication, the depot, exhibition design and institutional architecture, new cross connections are created and the ‘value and truth of an object’ constantly fluctuate.

For de Appel arts centre, Van Imhoff focuses on the process of exhibition making, such as the architecture, the role of the curator, or technical aspects such as climate control and transportation boxes, as shapes for her exhibition #+21.00. Van Imhoff intuitively reveals layers of the specific time frame of exhibition making, and thus exposes structures of presentation, conservation and programming. In her installation, the institution and the artwork are merged together, highlighting the impossibility of separating the artwork from the environment in which it is presented. Central themes that arise in this installation are the freezing of time, the battle against decay and transiency in both (art) objects and people. Something that seems insignificant or transient, like a cast that once protected a broken arm, and that only briefly existed to heal a fracture, can for instance gain ‘eternal value’ as it is reworked into a bronze sculpture. Using the same timeless material, Van Imhoff presents packages of anti-aging crèmes, products made to preserve a false promise, but which we usually discard as soon as we are finished using them.

By constantly changing meanings and bringing elements to the surface or repeating them, Van Imhoff forces the viewer to look carefully. A painting, a portrait, is repeated through reproductions made with X-ray and infrared technology; essential tools for any art historian or restorer who wishes to discover the origins of a work. As such, the invisible history of an object literally becomes a visual aspect of the image, while questions of ‘reproduction’ and ‘original’ are equated. By placing CYMK colours (colours used for standard printing) over these photographs, she then repeats the image. The invisible essence of every printed image, the colours it consists of, is placed onto the image like a filter.

Through her fascination with systems, series and collections, van Imhoff creates new cross connections between different objects and artefacts. Not only the artworks in the museum depot, but also the items on a table and the objects that do not belong anywhere in particular, are related to one another. The installation also reveals references to these kinds of ‘collections’. By monumentalising scattered clothing within the milky clarity of wax plates, for example, Van Imhoff creates new, unified objects; the question whose clothing this once was disappears into the background.

Although the numeric title #+21.00 at first instance gives little information, it refers to the systematic approach of Saskia Noor van Imhoff to her work and its inherent serialism, whilst simultaneously inviting the viewer to discover these systems for themselves with an open mind.

Coinciding with the exhibition in de Appel arts centre, the Stedelijk Museum will present an installation by Van Imhoff, #+23.00, from February 13 through May 8.

Each show is specifically related to the nature of the individual institution. The two exhibitions are connected by a special publication, #+22.00, designed by Phil Baber, Jasper Coppes and Saskia Noor van Imhoff and which is freely available at both institutes.

Saskia Noor van Imhoff (1982) lives and works in Amsterdam. She studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy (2004 – 2008) and de Ateliers (2010 – 2012), followed by a residency at Künstlerhaus Bethanien. In 2013 she was nominated by Marlene Dumas for the Volkskrant Award for Visual Arts and exhibited at the Slot Bad Bentheim as winner of the Ruisdael Stipendium. In August 2016 Van Imhoff will present a new installation at the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem. In the Netherlands Van Imhoff is represented by Galerie Fons Welters.