During malenki.NET Rio Staelens will share a work-in-progress in which she explores the perception and evocation of three-dimensionality on the flat surface of a photograph. By using and manipulating elements inherent to the medium, such as light, shadow, reflection and colour she creates another sense of space.
The compositions are tightly cropped to abstract the reality of the urban environment or the studio. It is also a strategy to remind us of a typical characteristic of photography: we can not see what is going on outside of the frame.
Within her artistic practice, Rio Staelens is interested in perception and (urban) landscape photography.
In her book Antrum she shows caves and rock formations which turn out to be “Lourdes grottos”: man-made constructions for local pilgrimage of the Catholics. Covered by mosses, ferns and plants these sculptures have become one with nature. Often surrounded by exuberant exotic plants, a distant world is evoked that shows us the remains of a religious culture.
On Saturday, September 28th at 3 PM Rio Staelens will speak about her practice in an informal conversation in Dutch or English language.