Catalogue Physical Fiction

Gwenneth Boelens takes the precise observation and analysis of photography as point of departure and develops it into threedimensional installations, collages, performances, photography and video projections. She illustrates the relationship of the human body to space or the fragmentary character of memory and recognition. The human presence is either equal to objects or subordinate to them. The work presenterd here is a photogram, or 'camera-less photograph'. In the darkroom, Boelens held filters and objects to obstruct the light falling onto the light-sensitive photographic paper. The magnets which kept the paper in place and traces of bodies holding the cloth are all real size. The whole operation in the complete dark is like a choreography with a specific order of steps. Rather than a representation of something, Boelens thinks of the photograph as a screen on which we see some sort of an after-image.