Installation view: Katie van Scherpenberg, Yakecan, Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro
Katie van Scherpenberg’s work was recently on show in a solo exhibition entitled Yakecan at Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro. The exhibition consisted of a recreation or reiteration of a landscape intervention carried out by the artist in 2004. For Síntese (2004), van Scherpenberg arranged five squares of salt on the dark sand of the banks of the Rio Negro. With the passing of time, the tide washed up various pieces of scorched, black wood – washed along in the river in the aftermath of forest fires. These dark deposits on the white salt seemed like a stark message to van Scherpenberg. An ominous warning from the river, a denunciation of the forest fires. The work is just as, if not more profound today than it was when it was first created.
September 20, 2022
