Jasper Coppes - Astro-Artist of the Month - March 2013

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Mar 12

2013

by Thilina Heenatigala

Published: Tuesday, March 12 2013 08:49

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With subtle, sometimes hidden, interventions in our reality Jasper Coppes explores the way we relate to objects and spaces. In doing so he simulates cultural heritage or lets architectural constructions merge into chosen environments. Coppes works with the assumption in mind that when our usual forms of knowledge decline, it becomes possible to restore a movement towards the uncertainty of the present. Because thanks to our ability to forget the commonplace we have the opportunity to experience the presence of that which is not, is no longer, or is not yet.

Jasper Coppes (Amsterdam 1983) graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in 2008 and was resident at the Jan van Eyck academy in 2010 – 2011. His work has been shown in various venues such as the Appel Art Centre in Amsterdam, the Fundació Antoni Tàpies in Barcelona, the W139 in Amsterdam, Jeanine Hofland Contemporary Art in Amsterdam and during the Manifesta 9. Along his practice as a visual artist he is active as an essayist, guest lecturer and guest teacher at various institutes in the Netherlands.

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The Fox’s legacy reveals a forgotten inheritance of the Zuid Limburg region. Landmarks such as these might be receptacles of forced forgetting rather than commemoration. Consequently, imagination takes up space in the stories that fill in the abyss of memory. With the work Forgotten Heritage Coppes activates the question whether the present isn’t merely the site of the construction, deconstruction and reconstruction of our collective memory. In the parallel program of the Manifesta 9 (2012) the exhibition at the Jan van Eyck Academie gave insight into the circumstances under which historical moments are forged.

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In Gongshí (viewing stone KM 130.580) (2013) Coppes elaborates on the Asian tradition of exhibiting stones in their natural shape, presented on a Daiza (a custom made wooden platform). Traditionally, this pedestal emphasises the miraculous form of the stone. Coppes re-interprets these collectibles out of his interest in the limitations that lie concealed in the exchange of cultural heritage. On the inside of an empty Daiza box, he projects the crystal clear registration of a 19th century ‘philosopher-stone’ from the collection of the Kröller Müller Museum in the Netherlands. In its silent presence this projection touches a physical as well as an imaginary object.