Almost Familiar Place
Textiles are crucial to the work of Valérie Kolakis but not in a way you might expect. In fact there are no textiles at all in Valérie's piece 'Almost Familiar Place' yet using light, vaseline and architecture, textiles become the unavoidable focus.
This site specific intervention acts "in response to the architecture of the building (in this instance the Van Nellefabriek). Barely visible it can appear and disappear at a glance, like something awkward and artificial is growing in the space. Referencing ideas of urban displacement the work focuses on the invisible, negative space, and is familiar yet strangely disquieting."
As the stencilled on vaseline collects dust, is touched and fades, the piece, and the space, alter dramatically. The clean, detailed lines turn from something crisp and pretty into something dirty and grim. And by using patterns and details we all know and recognise, the disquieting experience is dramatically heightened.
All images Courtesy of the artist and FOLD Gallery.