PRESS RELEASE
ONLINE EXHIBITION + ARTSY
JUNE 1 – JULY 1 2022
PREVIEW: MAY 30–31 2022
Ronewa Art Projects presents our second solo online exhibition with Belgian artist Marinda Vandenheede. Opening on June 1st, the Ronewa viewing room will showcase Vandenheede’s new series Oxygen, which continues her use of curious found objects combined with her own geometric formal language.
For this series, Vandenheede repurposes cardboard punched card patterns used in industrial loom weaving. She overlays the cards with hand-painted geometric designs guided by a minimalist logic of repetition and symmetry. Her graphic imagery appears independent of, even defiant against, the patterns created by the holes underneath. Though analog itself, the technology of the loom pattern cards is seen as a gateway invention to computer programming.
Vandenheede’s overriding of the pattern written on the cards can be interpreted as a symbolic rejection of our programming as humans – what we’re taught from our upbringing, education, and societal norms – and that our beliefs and choices are hardwired into this system. Vandenheede’s redesign of the cards is unbridled by the prescribed formula they display. Through the perforated material, she takes a breath of fresh air.
Vandenheede’s practice is defined by playful juxtapositions that nod to the inherent dualities found within humanity and nature. She is drawn to objects weathered by nature and time and made from natural materials vulnerable to erosion, such as wood, paper, and metal. Like her works shown by Ronewa in 2021, which were made from the pages of old books and wooden objects such as picture frames and rulers, the Oxygen works incite curiosity and contemplation.
Marinda Vandenheede lives in Waregem, Belgium, where she also studied fine art. Her practice is influenced by the truism that, as humans, we are inseparable from nature, while her early training in graphic design is visible in her sense of composition. Her works have been exhibited and collected internationally, including in Belgium, France, Spain, the UK, Ukraine, Australia , and New Zealand.
