Alek O. at Jeanine Hofland

Artist: Alek O.

Exhibition title: Time Goes By So Slowly…

Venue: Jeanine Hofland, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Date: February 6 – March 26, 2016

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Jeanine Hofland, Amsterdam

The clock ticks as a prelude to the 2005 song ‘Hung Up’ by Madonna, wherein she curses the slow passing of time by using the sentence ‘Time Goes By So Slowly’ as a mantra-like chorus.

The works within Alek O.’s solo exhibition at the gallery echo the theatrical and activated presence of objects whenever time seems to pass by in slow motion. It’s a state of boredom, of impatience, of forcefully looking for distraction, a momentum when we tend to activate our senses in a more active manner. Random objects become potential actors in a scene of time’s homicide. A terrain vague wherein the tactile starts revealing its inherent and potential narrative; for example a leave revealing it’s aesthetic of decay or a stain within the fabric of a curtain triggering our (visual) imagination.

These imperfections and traces of history form the starting point of Alek O.’s art practice, whereby she re-uses, re-shapes and assembles ‘objets trouvés’ into two dimensional and often abstract tableaux that gently flirt with Abstract-Expressionism’s aesthetic, fused with Arte Povera’s attitude.

She carefully blends notions of the readymade with craft, embroidery, painting, collaging and other traditional conventions of art making and alternates anonymous findings with personal treasures used by family and friends, and objects determined by their past owners. The act of being paused by the imaginative power of the imperfection of the object, its transformational process and its eventual presence as (geometrical) composition are of equal value to the artist, likewise the manner in which her works can be seen as conservations of the history of the object; inheriting a past, a present and a future meaning, whilst in between the clocks keeps ticking on the same pace and time will pass eventually.