A photographic essay on the spiritual and architectural dimensions of the candle.
Candles is a photographic essay by Tim Onderbeke. Fascinated by the sacred, ritual, and cerebral act of lighting a candle, the artist began collecting images of candles and candlesticks in an artistic or art-historical context. In
Candles, Onderbeke uses his own work and that of others to research what he calls "the colour of darkness," or negative space—a concept he borrowed from the Japanese writer and essayist Jun'ichirō Tanizaki. Tanizaki describes this intense experience he had in a large, dark room of a Japanese tea house where the light of a few candles made the surrounding darkness feel tangible, as if it turned into monolithic matter. Onderbeke sees a burning candle as an implosion of architectural space where the centre is usually kept empty. A burning candle in a dark room reverses that experience, and influences our perception of space, time and atmosphere.
In addition to Tim Onderbeke's work,
Candles also shows works of
Martin Kippenberger,
Anne Imhof, Juliaan Lampens,
Le Corbusier, Peter Zumthor,
Charlemagne Palestine,
Hiroshi Sugimoto, Pieter De Bruyne, Damian O'Sullivan, and
Robert Filliou, among others. Wolfgang Becker, art historian and former director of the Ludwig Forum Aachen, wrote an accompanying text.
Works by Alexander Calder,
Albert Renger-Patzsch,
Anne Imhof & Eliza Douglas, Aurelio & Guido Gonzato, Artavazd Peleshyan, Beate Frese, Bernhard Johannes, Karl Butzke, Deidi Von Schaewen, Lewis Baltz, Chaim Moshe, Tzadik Palestine,
Christopher Dresser, Damian O'Sullivan, Elisabeth Haggenmüller & Gottfried Böhm, Era Kayo, Georges Franju & Maria Casarès, Gerard Kuijpers,
Gerhard Richter, Giotto di Bondone, Guy Bourdin, Hans Przyrembel,
Hiroshi Sugimoto, Huib Hoste, Irvin Herb Grika, José de Almada Negreiros, J. Manwaring, Juliaan Lampens, Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris /
Le Corbusier, Man Ray, Marleen Daniëls,
Martin Kippenberger, Not Vital, Paul M.R. Maeyaert, Paul Felix, Peter Zumthor, Pieter De Bruyne, Royalty Of Exile,
Robert Filliou, Roger Bonduel, Slim Smith,
Sonic Youth, Tapio Wirkkala,
Tim Onderbeke, Valerie Colemonts, Walter Kranl, Wolfgang Becker, Wolfgang Tümpel...
Tim Onderbeke (born 1983) is a Belgian self-taught artist creating since 2002. His work focuses on the relation between sculpture, painting, photography, film and graphic art. Negative space is the space between two objects. Onderbeke is interested in the positive space around an object. His photographs, videos, sculptures and paintings are produced mechanically. Keeping his interventions minimal, he wants the material to speak for itself. Glass, rubber, aluminium, steel and oil paint are his materials of choice because they represent a background about trade throughout history.
