SEDIMENT

Opening on Saturday 14th August, SEDIMENT brings together three decades of work by celebrated German artist Mariele Neudecker, who works at the crossover of art and science. Landscape, the deep sea, the Arctic, environmental concerns and lockdown all have a presence in this major solo exhibition.

The artist’s quest to find a ‘contemporary sublime’ leads her to explore topics such as mapping, perception, the invisible, painting and the history of art. This multimedia practice incorporates sculpture, video, painting, photography and sound.

Hestercombe has developed a strong programme of contemporary art and is working towards its vision of a cultural centre which brings together creativity with the local environment of formal gardens and nature.

SEDIMENT: Book Launch and Mariele Neudecker ‘In Conversation’ with Tim Martin

Celebrated artist Mariele Neudecker will discuss her practice, career and current exhibition at Hestercombe Gallery, SEDIMENT, with Artistic Director and artist Tim Martin. More information on this event and tickets can be found here.

Highlights of the show include :

Everything Happens Once - an installation created by Neudecker as guest artist at CERN. She was inspired by the apparent contradiction of the high-tech scientific research and the appearance of the various experiments.

Nothing Will Stay the Same - a reimagining of the Arctic seascapes of painter William Bradford in a glass tank. Neudecker’s tanks use the visual effects created by glass and water to alter the perception of the foreground, midground and background of the piece.

Afterlife - which was was made after a trip on a ship to South West Greenland and is a visual reimagining of Casper David Friedrich’s The Sea of Ice which shows a shipwreck in the Arctic; the film explores the power of ice, mountains and sky; mirrored in the sea.

Plastic Vanitas is a series of vivid photographs of objects from the Museum of Design in Plastics. The images are Inspired by the Dutch still life painters of the 17th century, Vanitas artists, who created paintings of objects to encourage the viewer to consider mortality and to repent. Neudecker’s still lifes raise questions about the role of plastic, sustainability, climate change and the challenges of the world’s dwindling resources.

Other works in the gallery include new digital drawings onto photos created in lockdown, an archive of arctic images and drawings related to deep sea exploration.

A Thousand Ghosts is an installation outside in Hestercombe Gardens. The hand-crafted masts of this ‘submerged’ ship are inspired by Britain’s naval history and the trees that were felled to make ships. The artist explores the way we look at our surroundings and the events and ideas that have shaped our landscape, including centuries of shipbuilding.

Mariele Neudecker’s new book ‘SEDIMENT’, edited by Greer Crawley, designed by Herman Lelie & Stefania Bonelli and published by Anomie Publishing, London, will be launched at an ‘In Conversation’ with Tim Martin and Mariele Neudecker on 17th September, 2-4pm.

Mariele Neudecker

Düsseldorf born German artist, Mariele Neudecker, lives and works in Bristol, UK. Through her work, Neudecker explores the interphases and overlaps of the two and three-dimensional, as well as analogue and digital. She uses a broad range of media including sculpture, film, photography as well as sound. Her practice investigates the formation and historical dissemination of cultural constructs around the natural and technological world and notions of a Contemporary Sublime. Neudecker has shown widely internationally, notably in Biennales in Japan, Australia and Singapore, also solo shows in Ikon Gallery, Tate St Ives and Tate Britain.

Dates & Tickets

SEDIMENT at Hestercombe Gallery runs from 14th August until 24th October 2021.

Entry is by gardens admission only.

Hestercombe Gallery is open daily from 11am - 5pm.

Press

Read the full press release for SEDIMENT here.

Supporters

The exhibition has been made possible support from Arts Council England and Somerset West and Taunton Council.

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