Germaine Kruip: A shimmering of grey

In the viewer’s imagination, grey creates, as Beuys stressed, a complementary image that implies the idea of the entire chromatic spectrum in a process of inner imagination. Grey, according to Beuys, can be read as neutralization” 1

Ackerman and Tegethoff specifically address that this process of inner imagination might indicate a distance from life in which one retrieves and observes its (in) direct surroundings. This distance seems to be a key element in Germaine Kruip’s work. As an anthropological stage director, she inspects, simplifies and subtly presents her observations through often “Architectural interventions”. In each of these interventions she transforms a venue into a stage, in which the audience is confronted as actors in a play of substantive absence. She thereby activates both the physical and mental presence. A Shimmering of grey dissolves the bicinary of the interior and exterior of the gallery through a process of mirroring. Once again, the gallery is used as a staging platform, which at first appears to be empty but quickly changes into display of shifting lights. An artificial representation of daylight (blue) and interior lighting (orange) alternates, producing reflections on the gallery’s floor and walls. The two skylights with constructed revolving mirrors simultaneously transform the lights causing them to briefly dissolve into one and another (grey). For a split second, the space goes blank turning it into a stage where the viewer is confronted with its own consciousness. This moment of confrontation invokes the inner imagination making the viewer the centre of attention.

Next to the skylights is Kruip’s ongoing Image Archive; a collection of found imagery from often mainstream news outlets. Two slide-projections simultaneously show images that seem to indicate the same composition although the date and location mentioned below the image point towards a different context and period in time. Their appearance in newspapers suggests an objective representation, however the repetition of similar imagery provokes questions around truth, authenticity and its performativity. Kruip displays this artificial reality through both of the works, one as an abstract representation and the other as a direct confrontation of pre-fabricated compositions that determines our reality. A shimmering of grey attempts to freeze the moment where all these elements dissolve and briefly evaporate.

[K.G.]

1: The Color Grey, Marion Ackermann and Wolf Tegethoff

Germaine Kruip
A shimmering of grey