Hilde Overbergh

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“Painting has always been the starting point of Hilde Overbergh’s artistic practice. Not the kind of painting where the action takes place within the surface of a defined canvas, but a kind of painting that challenges and shifts the rules and notions of genres and media. Her artistic method is not focussed on claiming a certain signature style, it rather zooms in on the exploration of the transformative possibilities of materials, colors, and shapes. Her work comprises aspects of painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, video, assemblage, and installation. And above anything else, the artist focuses on the process.

 

Although Overbergh approaches her work conceptually, what stands out is a great sense of intuition and tactility. Through leaving space for what’s unintentional or unforeseen during the creative process, her art never becomes sterile. The artist uses material to question herself. She reclaims insignificant, everyday objects – materials without obvious art-historical associations, or seemingly futile remnants of the past – and unravels and reshapes them into evocative carriers of meaning. She extracts beauty and poetry from humble materials such as foam, plastic waste, pieces of textile, glass shards … Her diverse oeuvre is also capable of holding on to elements of when and where the work was made. Environment and context often have a tangible influence on her artistic output through her search for a connection with social and urban dynamics.

 

By repeating and reworking fragments and works from previous presentations, the artist allows for not only the shape, but also the meaning of her work to stray and change. The meaning of her works accumulates over time, and changes according to their position in space or relation to context. Hilde Overbergh creates dynamic connections and associations between works of art and different presentations, which makes viewers sensitive to perception and experience. Her work exists fully in the present moment and reflects the commotion and fragility of the world around us.”

 

– Koen Leemans