Secret Outlines
Art collection1996
- Type
- Installation mixte
- Materials
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Books, paper, graphite, HD videos, colour, sound, oak, acrylic glass.
- Dimensions
- Variable dimensions
- Acquisition
- Acquisition , 07/06/2023
- Inventory number
- K2023-009
"I saw that you didn't see." Jacqueline Mesmaeker, 2023.
Secret Outlines consists of two showcases containing eight books: Docteur Johnson, Essai sur la fatigue, Childhood, Lenin, Versailles, Fontainebleau, Une chambre à soi and Théorie de la culture. The pages of the books are filled with Jacqueline Mesmaeker's drawings: they appear in and over the text, between the lines and in the margins. Her sprawling interventions are both pictorial and graphic.
The books are encased in glass, but they are opened up with the help of eight videos, which flick through the pages in a continuous and regular motion. You can scan and scour the pages for "secret" micro-interventions from the artist, like being on a treasure hunt. In this way, the pages of the books become the site of the actual exhibition.
Literature has a prominent place in Jacqueline Mesmaeker's work. The ubiquitous books are both a source of inspiration and a tool for the artist. They sustain her work and give it direction.
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© Jacqueline Mesmaeker, La Verriere. Courtesy the artist and Nadja Vilenne, Liège.