Nadine Baldow - A Pleasure To Be Alive

Opening: Friday, 28th April, 2023 5 PM - 8 PM

Meet the artist: Saturday, 29th April, 2023  11 AM - 3 PM

SÍM Gallery

Hafnarstræti 16, 101 Reykjavík

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NADINE BALDOW

www.nadinebaldow.com

@nadine_baldow

A PLEASURE TO BE ALIVE...

The works in this show are dedicated to my dear friend Josefine Lehner, who was moved by the Icelandic 

Landscape deeply.

Nadine Baldow’s practice is informed by the current geological era, known as the  Anthropocene, where traces of human activity are embedded within planet earth. Are we still part of nature? Did estrangement from nature start with a fence? Did the first artificial boundary create a gap between man and nature? 

Since 2020, Baldow's site-specific sculptures are informed by the ongoing series of Landscape Investigations – TOPOPHILIA, starting in the NorthWest of rural Ireland. Until now, she investigated the rural, but culturally impacted landscapes of Ireland, Slovenia, Lithuania, and Iceland. 

“A PLEASURE TO BE ALIVE focuses on the bodily experience of being in landscape – with its pleasures and its harshness alike. The last three months, I concentrated on repetitive rituals to be fully present in my body and in the environment. Besides the act of walking the land and exposing myself to every weather this Island has to offer – I meditated on natural phenomena in landscape and delved into rituals with hot and icy water. 

All landscapes, I've investigated so far – despite their beauty – carry a heavy human handprint. Iceland is no exception with its treeless land and the effects of livestock grazing,but the power of nature is highly present in this geologically young landmass. During the process of walking the land and observing the challenging condition this young place creates, I felt drawn to the presence of mortality in this landscape. My own existence, my body feeling the land, stands in contradiction to these materials, such as bones, sculls and horns. The remains of these dead beings indicate how these animals died – while some died of natural causes, others found their death through direct human force. 

A PLEASURE TO BE ALIVE is a conglomerate of materials found in the volcanic landscapes of Iceland that tell stories about their pain and joy of existence.” Iceland, April 2023

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Upcoming Projects: 

A PLEASURE TO BE ALIVE, SIM Gallery, Reykjavik, Iceland (s)

Public Art Installation for MS ARTVILLE, Hamburg, Germany (s)

APEX PREDATOR, Kunsthalle Brennabor, Brandenburg Germany (g)

TOPOPHILIA, Eastern Edge Centre, St. Johns, Canada (s)

BIO

Nadine Baldow (b. 1990, Dresden, Germany) is a visual artist based in Berlin whose work predominately addresses the complex relationship between "culture" and "nature" and their ongoing impact on each other. 

The scenarios she builds through her site-specific sculptures and installations could be considered as philosophical thought experiments dealing with ecological issues. In addition to her sculptural practice, the artist exposes herself to various situation of friction to explore her own relationship with nature, such as shepherding a freely flock or living in a lonely hut in the woods.

Nadine Baldow studied with professor Eberhard Bosslet, at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden after completing a woodcarving apprenticeship in the Alps - she completed her studies as "Meisterschüler". 

She has been scholarship holder of the artist-in-residence-program in the Himalayas in India (KYTA Foundation), Iceland (SIM), at Gozo Contemporary in Malta (the META Foundation), the National Park Sumava in Czech, Leitrim Sculpture Centre (ArtsCouncil Ireland), the nature conservation island Vilm in Germany (German Federal Agency for Nature, BfN), Urban Nation - museum for urban contemporary art in Berlin (Stiftung Berliner Leben), Halle 14 - the Center for Contemporary Arts in Leipzig, Stiftung Künstlerdorf Schöppingen and in Seoul, South Korea in cooperation with the Hansung University.

Baldow produced several public space interventions in South Korea, India, and Germany. Her work has been exhibited in Switzerland, Ireland, Iceland, Lithuania, Slovenia, Malta, Germany, Poland, Czech, the Netherlands, South Korea, and India. Numerous galleries and museums such as Haus am  Lützowplatz Berlin, Kunstmuseum Heidenheim, Urban Nation - Museum for Urban Contemporary Arts Berlin, Valletta Contemporary (Malta), Leitrim Sculpture Centre (Ireland), Halle 14 - Center for Contemporary Arts (Leipzig, Germany) have featured Nadine Baldow's work in the past. She has been represented on several art fairs, such as the Contemporary Art Week Delhi, OSTRALE - the International Exhibition for Contemporary Art in Dresden, and the ArtFair Düsseldorf.