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Goele De Bruyn

Z.t (borders for/from pillows - R. 2004-2019 Hamilton & frozen square modified)


Goele De Bruyn's works, often containing elements from the immediate domestic environment, deal with a variety of formal and human concerns. By juxtaposing or overlapping functionality and the non-functional, the familiar and the strange, or by unifying them in their contradictions, her works are sometimes absurd or slightly comical, but are always marked by a specific emotional tension. The uneasy 'being', the melancholy and absence of the hybrid object reveal the works themselves as cultural constructions. The principles with which meaning is constructed are related to the staging of the works. Elements from earlier works are often reused, copied, relocated, altered, disguised. The work traverses different periods, its character contaminated according to the environment it infiltrates. In this way, Goele De Bruyn always again constitutes a mental space for every audience. Objects and environment often form a reassuring and disturbing whole. Disorientation is her point of departure. Once one has adapted, doubt is again renewed along the path of interpretation; there is a play of 'disappointment' in opposition to every expectation. She does not so much reveal the idyllic or touching aspects of the objects as their potential to become something else. The brute familiarity of the objects that appear are alienated from their referent, giving rise to a turbid, sometimes invisible or ghostly retranslation of the sign referred to.

(Free translation of Philippe Pirotte's text, 'The World Revisited', about Goele De Bruyn.)


Z.t (borders for/from pillows - R.  2004-2019 Hamilton & frozen square modified)
z.t. (window) 2019
z.t. (back view / the egg) 2017
z.t. (aprons) 2015
z.t. (back view, the pigeon) 2019
z.t. (shot/deer) 2017
z.t. (shot/deer) 2017
z.t. (shot/Napoleon) 2018
Installation view Soft Fire 2019
z.t. (et per se &) 2007
Installation view   Back Juice   Loods 12 z.t. (borders for pillows / reclining scape
z.t. (borders for pillows / reclining scape)
z.t.(forecast)
z.t.(mood)
z.t. (as falls)
Difference in memory
Bed met kruimels
Bed met kruimels
Z.t. (telescoop)
Z.t. (slagboom als steunbalk voor de toeschouwer)
Villa Doorsparen
Z.t. (hemellichamen)
Z.t. (landschap)
Dageraad (dievenluik)
Z.t. (bellybuttonball)
Wachtkamer
Z.t. (catocala nupta, opening voor een vondelingenschuif)
Z.t. (ideeënbussen)
Z.t. (beertjes)
Z.t. (gieter)
Z.t. (catocala nupta, model voor een vondelingenschuif in de voordeur)
Z.t. (raincoats)
detail
Z.t. (telescoop)
Z.t. (Selene, a walk to the far side)
Z.t. (les mains sales)
(c) Dirk Cornelis
Z.t. (sunset-sunrise/ borders for pillows-frozen square)
Z.t. (sunset-sunrise/ borders for pillows-frozen square)
Z.t. (vliegenraam)
Z.t. (portable barrier)
Z.t. (slagboom als steunbalk voor de toeschouwer)
Z.t. (bed van sneeuwwitje)
detail
Vereniging Museum Hedendaagse Kunst, Ghent
Z.t. (dief), 1998
wood, cardboard, school board paint, latex, metal
171 x 120 x 3 cm

Z.t. (aanwijsstok & peperkoek), 1996
wood, garden wood green, spunge, plastic foil, stickers
8 x 17 x 11 cm
Z.t. (nachtpot), 1996-1997
plaster, chalk
35 x 28 x 27 cm

Z.t. (navelbal), 1995-1997
plaster, beeswax, rope
21 cm
Z.t. (chromo-deksel)
Part of the installation 'Villa Doorsparen', 2001 

Z.t. (hemellichamen), 1991-1999
bicycle stands, chalk, school board paint, canvas, wood
170 x 188 x 25 cm

Z.t (2 bedden) 1999-2000
floorcloth, buttons, yarn, pins, labels, plastic foil
each 18
Z.t. (frühe/stork asleep at sunrise)
Soap----Antwerp to Beijing
part of the installation 'Villa Doorsparen', 2001
Z.t. (partly varnished concrete floor) 2001
part of the installation 'Villa Doorsparen', 2001, detail

Z.t. (13 blankets) 1998-2001
floorcloth, buttons, yarn, ribbons, each 100 cm x 170 cm


Flanders Arts Institute

Expertise centre for performing arts, music and visual arts.