At the end of a 7-month residency in the HKU Fine Art department Sander Breure & Witte van Hulzen have transported the studio in which they worked to the exhibition space of AG. Inside this architectural intervention, eight students show new work. By exhibiting the studio itself as a space we want to bring to the front what normally takes place backstage: the processes in the studio. What happens in the studio? How does an artist work? Can we discern a system in what the artist is doing? Sometimes it involves paint, but often it doesn’t. Does it mean you are working if you are lying around, reading a book? Or just lying around, feeling bad about not doing anything? I know it is work to write these lines, but it doesn’t feel like that.

In the studio, there is a conference of birds. One can think a bird is just a bird, or one might consider the birds to be metaphorical. There are different kinds of conferences: conferences intended to discover something. Conferences where people gather to share ideas about a specific subject. Celebratory conferences, such as a birthday or in general the commemoration of a happy event. And there are conferences where a crisis is managed. There are also different kinds of birds. Shy birds, finicky birds, birds that like to shit everywhere, birds that think they look beautiful, birds that want to look like the ones that think they look beautiful, very active birds, horny birds, angry birds, and birds that say: “I’m happy that you’re finally angry”. On every bird fits a hat, but not every bird is happy to wear one.

The artist works in the studio, but the studio is not sealed off from the world. The artist needs to relate to the outside world. The artist listens to the birds.

Arno Westerberg
Chiou Mian Lin
Hannah Konings
Lorenço
Lotte Bierman
Sabina Lăpteanu
Sander Breure & Witte van Hulzen
Stefan Bras
Zazi Creyghton

Opening Friday April 1 at 17:00h

Air Pastoe is made possible by the generous support of the Keep an Eye Foundation.