On a stage, as if it were a presentation in a cultural history museum, we show a collection of wondrous objects. Artists Dodi Espinosa, Warre Mulder, Sharon van Overmeiren, Carmen Schabracq and Saar Scheerlings make sculptures that refer in different ways to cultural expressions and stories of the past and present, from around the world. Sometimes they look at these sources of inspiration from a distance, sometimes they are actually experienced. Always they result in unique works with their own story, but which are also free for the viewer's interpretation.

Saar Scheerlings, Talisman

With her textile talismans and ceramic sculptures, Saar Scheerlings (Eindhoven, 1990) shows a search for a sense of inspiration and meaning, as we know it from ancient cultures and religious artefacts. Her objects invite you to project your own idea onto them. With her work, she wants to show that culture is not uniform but rather hybrid and subject to a multitude of interpretations. Her process is like a kind of trade route or port where all kinds of previously unknown things can influence each other.


Timeless motifs


The sculptures of Warre Mulder (Borgerhout, 1984) draw from things as diverse as mythological literature and popular culture such as comics. Timeless motifs and characters from different, often culturally distant contexts, combine to form new constellations of meaning. The sculptures he creates from wood or acrylic resin sometimes appear somewhat awkward due to enlarged limbs or comical faces, but are at the same time serious and poignant.

An eclectic mix of inspirations can also be seen in the work of Sharon van Overmeiren (Antwerp, 1985). Her images embrace the multitude and diversity of images and information we are presented with every day through various media. This flow of information is the starting point for her sculptures in clay, wax and wood, which are assemblages of visual elements brought together in a new context.

Warre Mulder, There Will Be New Gods

Sharon van Overmeiren, Shou Sugi Ban

Soul

The sculptures of Dodi Espinosa (Mexico City, 1985) carry a spiritual charge that is addressed by him in ritual performances. His work reflects on his position as an artist with a Latin American background living in Europe. His hybrid and unexpected life path is reflected in the eclectic imagery that characterises his creations. Cultural exchanges and paradoxes are at the heart of his work. Carmen Schabracq's (Amsterdam, 1988) masks are worn in her theatrical performances. She gathers stories from different myths, traditions, her own experiences and uses them to create collage-like, visual narratives. With her masks, she explores the complexity of human identity. A mask is a tool within a ritual or performance, to become 'the other' and she plays with this in different ways.

Articles about the exhibition
Gallery Viewer, Summer in the City
Parool, review
Groene Amsterdammer, review