BUBBLE GILDING BY PHILIPINE VINKE
Bubble Gilder travels to Yerevan and hands out free shards of happiness and good fortune
MIRROR INSTALLATION TO BE TRANSFORMED BY PUBLIC FOR GOOD FORTUNE AT ARMENIA ART FAIR
Shards bring happiness and good fortune”, according to a Dutch proverb. Dutch artist Philipine Vinke, featuring at Armenia Art fair, brings her installation “Mirrors of Truth” to Yerevan. This installation consists of shards of recycled Artmirrors. Every visitor of the fair which is held May 11-14th at Yerevan Expo Centre, is invited to a piece of happiness and good fortune, symbolised through the gift of one of the many shards to constitute the installation. “Mirrors of Truth” will be on display 11-14th of May at the booth of Duarte Online Art Gallery.
It is the first time Vinke’s installation is on display outside The Netherlands. During a previous display of this installation, people were inspired to share beautiful every day stories of health, wealth, happiness and sorrow. Often people chose to gift their piece to a loved one in need of good fortune. “Every pick up comes with a personal story. Each time I am amazed by the intimacy of my audience”. I hope my shards bring good fortune to Armenians, especially in turmoil times.
It is Vinke’s goal that the installation “Mirrors of Truth” travels the world. With every new display, the artist curates the shards in accordance with the site and with every pick up the stream of shattered mirrors organically transforms, just as the stream of life itself does.
The installation “Mirrors of Truth” originated when Vinke’s largest artwork ever fell off a gallery wall, 5 days after its first display. The artwork measured over two squared meters. Vinke at that time, was exhibiting with ceramist Harmke Zwep, whose labour also creates a lot of shards.
Before an artwork hits the Gallery-Walls, lots of things go wrong. We all see art as a finished product. But what happens with all the ideas, sketches and failures that do not make it to a Gallery or an Art Fair? They end up as shards. “As both Harmke and my art generate lots of breakage, I decided to ask Harmke for pieces of her porcelain. Combined the pieces of my Artmirrors, they form “Mirrors of truth”. The installation symbolises all the shards and breakage people create while living. Life is a succession of failures and all these compose a beautiful string of moments that we call lifetime”.
“Mirrors of Truth is named after an interpretation of an inspirational text: “When the Mirror of Truth fell out of the heavens, people started collecting its pieces. And everybody who collected a piece cried out triumphantly: “I hold the mirror of truth”.
Philipine Vinke, (1968, Netherlands) works and lives in the artists village of Nunspeet and is a founding member of „The Nunspeet School‘. She plays an important role in the artist community of Nunspeet where she works and lives with her family. She coined her innovative technique Bubble Gilding, of which first works were created in 2015. The technique evolves and flows as time passes.
Armenia Art Fair is the first time Vinke will be exhibited in Armenia. Earlier this year Vinke exhibited in Dubai, as well as in the Netherlands. On display in the booth of Gallery Duarte will be pieces from her first series of Bubble Gilding, as well as her current series „Art Mirrors“, and „Obsolete Ego’s”. The latter are made from recycled European mirrors. Since part of their reflective surfaces have been removed, these mirrors represent both the reflective side of humanity as well as its transparency. Colorful opaqueness of the epoxies completes the viewer’s brain-freeze, as the eye cannot comprehend the pairing of the see-through glass with a shiny surface.
Core themes in Vinke’s work center around specific social constructs she calls ‘bubbles’. Powerful examples are national flags, the monetary system and paradoxes in (lack of) transparency in public and private lives.
Vinke’s pieces are held in private collections internationally.
Vinke will be present during opening hours Armenia Art FairMay 11-13. She is represented by Duarte Art Gallery, owned by Andra de Knijff. For more information, please visit onlinegallery-duarte.com
--