Inside the outside: pioneers in lens-based media

The exhibition Inside the outside: Pioneers in lens-based media explores the relationship between man and nature through the lens of the camera with the works of 16 artists and photographers. After all, we love nature, but at the same time we also see how indifferent nature can be when great dramas and disasters are taking place and how we affect and destroy it with our actions.

Inside the outside has its origins in the work of Richard Tepe (1864-1952), one of the first nature photographers in the Netherlands and with work represented in the collection of CODA Archief. His analogue photography is surrounded by the work of 15 contemporary artists who show the impressive beauty and overwhelming power of nature or who examine, question and criticize the relationship between man and nature.
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The Memory Master Tree Installation (2021) by Jacquie Maria Wessels is an installation consisting of six works printed on thin silk from the analogue photo series Memory Master. This poetic series represents the memory of places you might have been. Mostly the memory is not clear with precise detail. It can act as an afterimage, vague sometimes veiled with tatters ... The mysterious impressionist images evoke an atmosphere of vanishing memories.

The Memory Master Tree Installation comprises a selection of photos concentrating on trees. Details of the trees are barely perceptible, yet each tree expresses its own nature. This installation plays with the idea that the memories may be captured by the trees as witnesses of what passes. The photos are printed on large delicate silk fabrics. The fluttering works are moved by fans, emphasizing the fragile, ephemeral and painterly character of the works.

Since 1988, Jacquie Maria Wessels has been making these Memory Masters with an analog 35mm camera. Especially from special places during her many travels around the world, but also closer to home, although the geographical context of the scenes remains indefinite.. The works in the installation were made in Nikko Japan 2018, Sicily Italy 2012, Rotterdam Netherlands 2012, Capri Italy 2016, and Cape Town South Africa 2019.

Jacquie Maria Wessels’ work is exhibited worldwide and is in the collection of various museums including the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (NL), Huis Marseille - Museum for Photography in Amsterdam (NL) and the Surinaams Museum in Paramaribo (SR), as well as in private collections.

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