Soft Inquiry

Solo show at K A N S A S Gallery in New York City

‘Through an installation of beguiling objects that straddle the realms of sculpture and image, de Joode chooses to focus on depictions and abstractions of basic and primordial materials such as clay (a mainstay for the artist), rocks and the occasional dash of algae. Swaths of skin and passages of boiling mud are images isolated from photographs to form lyrical compositions that nod to the physical and virtual worlds. Organically shaped, bright and flesh colored clay appear sumptuous to the touch, but closer study reveals an even, smooth surface. All of the seeming tactility is frozen in photographs, which are cut and hung on handmade ceramic hooks. Textural paintings serve as a meditative focal point when descriptions of matter begin to act as new entities, divorced from the material they logically reference. Here, the surface of clay becomes a thing in itself. As is common in de Joode's work, questions of perception arise through a truncated, two-dimensional version of these materials (skin made to operate on the same phenomenological plane as mud) which go through an accordion-like process, beginning in full form, compressing, and finally extending into a state imbued with previous iterations.’
— from the press release, more here and here