Edith Dekyndt is an artist who draws inspiration from natural phenomena and, what may be called, “the psychology of machines.” Presented as minimal, highly precise installations, her works tread a fine line between the down-to-earth and the other-worldly, activating the cognitive boundaries of those who come in their midst. Since 2004, her practice has been developed under the umbrella of what she termsUniversal Research of Subjectivity. Her solo exhibition, Agnosia, was presented at Witte de With in the spring of 2009.
Witte de With’s 8th Source Book – which generously documents the works in the exhibition – also offers access to Edith Dekyndt’s personal inspirations in literature, film and music. Taking up the ‘source’ in ‘Source Book,’ Dekyndt prepared her own texts and lists of favorites, as well as a recommendation: Norman Mailer’s Of a Fire on the Moon(1971). A significant excerpt of this account of the Apollo 11 mission (from a chapter entitled “The Psychology of Machines”) is thus reproduced and offers a precise poetic key for the artist’s blend of scientific enquiry and subjective reverie. Her selections are further illuminated in an interview with Amira Gad (assistant curator at Witte de With).
In addition to Dekyndt’s personal sources, two curators have been invited to write essays in direct response to the artist’s practice. Renske Janssen confronts the blankness of many of Dekyndt’s images by contextualizing them in her personal encounters with other blank gazes from historical and contemporary artworks – considering how such works release the trigger of subjective consciousness. Wim Waelput draws on his experience of organizing Dekyndt’s recent solo exhibition at KIOSK in Ghent in the Spring of 2010; he particularly focuses on Carousel, a new site-specific installation developed for KIOSK, as a resource for understanding the dimension of time in her practice as a whole.
Colophon
Number of copies: 1000, English
Edited with an introduction by Juan A. Gaitán, Nicolaus Schafhausen & Monika Szewczyk
Contributors: Edith Dekyndt, Amira Gad, Renske Janssen, Norman Mailer, Wim Waelput.
Format: paperback, 111 pages; 200 x 125 mm; 16 color images, additional b&w illustrations
Design: Kummer & Herrman, Utrecht
Publication date: 1 November 2010
Published by Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art
Printed in: The Netherlands
ISBN: 978-90-73362-90-1
Price: 10 eur, $15, 9 GBP
Distribution
The book is available at Witte de With and via the following distributors:
D.A.P., New York (USA only), online catalogue:
www.artbook.com, e-mail dap@dapinc.com, phone +1 212 627 1999
Cornerhouse, Manchester (UK and Ireland only), online catalogue:www.cornerhouse.org, e-mail publications@cornerhouse.org, phone +44 1612001503
Idea Books, Amsterdam, (The Netherlands and all other countries) online catalogue www.ideabooks.nl,
e-mail: idea@ideabooks.nl, phone: +31 (0)20 6226154
Witte de Withstraat 50 - 3012 BR Rotterdam - T: