The Berlin-based Belgian artist Ada Van Hoorebeke turns the technique of batik inside out in her mesmerising batik installations and sculptures. Her large scale batik curtains open to a new material and spiritual sensitivity of a micro- and macro cosmos. On micro level the artists' working process is the main theme, where dyes, sticks and functional furniture display the direct connection she has with her material, e.g. the making of batik dyes and dyeing fabric itself. On a macrocosmic level her batik imagery function as vehicles of abstraction, that take the viewers to a place often beyond symbols and subjects, recreating a contemporary path for man into nature, and reconnecting us with our senses.

The artwork of  Van Hoorebeke is both informed by a studio-based and a contextual practise. She often integrates the reflection of other artists work in her own as in energetic diagrams, represented through colours, network drawings and abstract forms. Van Hoorebekes' artistic talent combines an elaborated handcraft practice, an almost scientific knowledge of dyes mixed with a conceptual approach to art making.

(Text by Solvej Helweg Ovesen, Berlin april 2013)