Clementine Edwards (DAI, 2018) is one of the artists in Material Memory, a group exhibition that traces the mechanisms of memory in the tangible, material world. Clem's sculptures focus on her explorations into copper and rice – both materials have their own geographic signatures depending on where they're grown/extracted, and are ubiquitous and essential to ongoing human life on earth. The exhibition at TENT runs till 19-02-2023.
Material Memory
In what ways does matter retain memory? Can we develop a more responsible relation to water – an inherently ancient substance that remembers and retains all human endeavour – by considering our bodies as conduits in the hydrological cycle? What can a kinship with non-sentient materials look like, and why is it imperative to our shared future and continued existence?
The questions that inform this exhibition derive from the work of five artists who trace, cast, and carve out the multi-layered relationships between memory and matter in sensuous, vibrant, and imaginative ways. These artists survey personal archives and uncomfortable collective histories that link materiality and intergenerational transmission across time, bodies, and geographies. In doing so, they hold space for playful intimacies with the material world by intervening, re-imagining and reclaiming that which is tangible. Threaded through the exhibition is the transformative potential of understanding that the knowing self is always partial, unstable, and never complete. The artists’ exploration of the interdependence between the physicality of all things and stored material memory invites our closer inspection and deeper listening.
Artists: Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Cihad Caner, Hannah Dawn Henderson, Clementine Edwards, Kari Robertson. Curated by Katayoun Arian.
On Friday 2 December, Clementine Edwards performs Dollhouse Dreaming. The performance takes some of the material details of the 17th century Dutch dollhouse rooms, gestures towards its universe of values and beliefs, and colours in otherwise.
TENT is located on the ground floor of
Witte de Withstraat 50
3012 BR Rotterdam