The solo exhibition Being Places by Dutch photographer Ellen Kooi (born 1962) at TORCH Gallery presented her most recent work, including pieces created especially for the exhibition and never shown before. Once again, Kooi highlighted the fascinating relationship between people and the landscape.
Through panoramic photographs , she revealed the visual differences and similarities in our experience of being places. The two-word title can be read literally as ‘we who are in places’ or ‘we who are places.’ Although becoming one with the outside world is impossible, we still strive to do so. The title can also refer to the two principal themes in Kooi’s work: our existence in this world and the places we use for that existence.
The places Kooi chooses to photograph are often, though not exclusively, Dutch landscapes. When a landscape catches her attention for any reason, she tries to understand its attraction. It often relates to a certain inner unease. Once she understands it, Kooi begins considering how to convey that experience in a photograph. By placing models in the landscape and having them respond to their surroundings, she uses their body language to create a narrative. As a former theater photographer, she then uses lighting to produce an enchanting image in which the characters become inseparable from the place.
...the things that give our existence the most meaning are the most vulnerable...
The subject of ‘being’ is complex, and thousands of philosophers and artists have devoted their lives to it. Kooi’s approach is characterized by making that state of being highly vulnerable. In her view, the things that give our existence the most meaning are also the most vulnerable. The figures in Kooi’s work therefore radiate gentleness and restraint. Set amid a rugged, expansive landscape, they create unease and a threatening atmosphere: the tension of a child who seems about to be swallowed by emptiness or to wander into infinity.
Kooi also recognizes this theme in modern dance, which has always been a major inspiration. In the way dancers interact with the space around them, she sees how people interact with the landscape in which they exist.
Ellen Kooi graduated from Minerva Art Academy in Groningen in 1987 and completed her postgraduate studies at the Rijksakademie in 1994. She lives and works in Haarlem.
Text: © TORCH Gallery
Being Places: Ellen Kooi
TORCH Gallery
November 10, 2018 – January 5, 2019
