A new exhibition featuring Canadian artist Kelly Richardson, Franco-Canadian artist Nicolas Sassoon and Brazilian-American artist Rick Silva. Curated by Brussels-based art space Rectangle, “Revenants” plays with ideas of scale and time as it relates to human perception and our place on this planet. Sassoon’s ongoing sculpture series, “Prophets,” combines volcanic rock with LCD panels featuring pixelated animations reminiscent of flowing lava. Recalling traditional viewing stones, from which electronic hardware and screens emerge to form heads and figures, the sculptures recount a partial history of our relationship with matter and reminds us, not just of how the very ground beneath our feet was formed, but where the same minerals that enable our digital lives originate. Sassoon and Silva’s collaborative project similarly speaks to the connections between organic and inorganic materials as they share a common interest in depictions of wilderness and natural forms through computer imaging. “CORES” is made up of high-resolution 3D renderings of geological specimens altered by unnatural substances and enigmatic structures.

On the other end of the planetary spectrum, Richardson takes us into the asteroid belt of our solar system. Continuing ideas explored in “Pillars of Dawn” where extinct species in a seemingly post-human world have taken the form of crystals, “Origin Stories” reveals the majesty and infinite wealth of our home within the context of the universe. However intensely inward (historical / geological) or outward (celestial / futuristic) these artists may be looking, all the pieces in “Revenants” seem to come back to the same thing — what role or responsibility we still have yet to play. As Alexandra Crouwers states in her essay on the show:

“When we return to the human power of one, we’re left with the realisation that while our species’ behaviour is responsible for the current global extinction event, it’s equally capable of producing uniquely imaginative visions. Art alone can’t save the world but the creation of art may very well be considered as the yin to our destructive yang.”

Check out more images from “Revenants” below or on display at Rectangle in Brussels until February 20th.

“Revenants” Featuring Artists Kelly Richardson, Nicolas Sassoon & Rick Silva

We’d like to thank all the artists and the following lenders for their loans of artwork for the exhibition:

Icarus Films (Chantal Akerman), Clearing Gallery, Brooklyn (Harold Ancart), Essex Street/Maxwell Graham (Jef Geys), Greene Naftali Gallery (Dan Graham), Ronald Guttman / Christine Martin, Frédéric de Goldschmidt / André Magnin (Bodys Isek Kingelez), Janice Guy (An-My Lê), Cordula Lebeck, Archiv Robert Lebeck (Robert Lebeck), Lumen Travo Gallery, Amsterdam (Otobong Nkanga), C L E A R I N G, Brussels (Marina Pinsky), and AfricaMuseum (Royal Museum for Central Africa).

A special thanks to Lawrence B. Benenson, LMCC, New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), Mr. Jacques Louise Vidal, WBI (Wallonie-Bruxelles International) and FWB (Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles) for their generous support. Thanks also to gallery assistants Jervey Inglesby, Laura Li, Molly Miller, Hannah Park, Kristal Uribe, as well as Daylon Orr, for all their efforts on the exhibition.