The first impression can deceive you. The proof is at the “Out of the Blues” exhibition at waterside contemporary in London until January 23rd. As you walk into the exhibition space, at a first glance you see random objects scattered on the floor and think: “what’s that?”. At a second the objects begin to transfigure into letters, words and phrases.
You feel like a detective trying to decipher what message lies behind each set of tools. At each moment a different conceptual dimension reveals itself, expanding your experience. You are a player in a game that tests your perception, an adventure into Frederik’s world.
You put on his lens to look at these objects transcribe into expressions that relate to the work in a metalinguistic scoop. Starting with the word “look” itself, written with rulers and an old bicycle tire. As you become more acquainted to the lens the more you see.
Eventually comes the phrase “what you get is what you see”, meaning that the more you understand things the more they unveil themselves to you. Like a sommelier that knows his wine and can grasp more tastes than the average person. Life is like that, we only see things that we already know because our eyes are programmed by pre-conceptions of our mind.
I left the exhibition and took the lens with me. Through the frame of art Frederik Van Simaey showed us a new way to look at the everyday world, with humour and wit. He broke out of the white cube to affect the visitor throughout life. After all, art is not on another world, its in the day to day. It all depends on how you look at things.
