Ruimte / Space by Beppe Kessler

Artist list

Beppe Kessler

The Dutch are accustomed to space: the light, a broad view, the freedom to breath. Small wonder, half of the country borders on the infinity of the sea, and on its grass lands the circle-round skyline will ever be beyond reach. In the towns and homes space is reduced to just a memory, a vague longing for expansion. 'wouldn't it be great' Beppe Kessler thought, 'if you could capture space in a piece of jewellery, so you could always carry it with you?' It was this idea that provided the starting point for her recent jewellery. 

Kessler's autonomous work can perhaps best be characterized as orchestrated coincidence: scratch- and draw techniques on pre-processed surfaces, or experiments with paints and pigments on linen or sheets of metal. She never strives for an representational picture: only patterns, colours and textures should evoke an associative image. In interaction with these larger works Kessler created jewellery pieces in which space seems to be within reach. Some years ago, during an artist-in-residency at Idar Oberstein in Germany, Beppe Kessler not only polished precious stones, but also pieces of acrylic fibre. The remarkable optical effects of the cut plastic provided a perfect component in her new brooches and necklaces.

All this space is to Kessler in no way synonymous with desolate sulek-burcu-emptiness-2015; her 'Netwerk' (network) pieces makes that cristal clear. The drawn structures that are visible, explicitly refer to connections between people - be it in person, or through the contemporary social media. It is interesting that these grids are derived from the carefully preserved outcome of Kesslers minimalist explorations from the early eighties. In this way the past connects with the present, and so the subject of this group of work, space, acquires an surprising fourth dimension.

Ward Schrijver 
(© Galerie Rob Koudijs)