Manon van den Eeden
Hot Spell
FRED&FERRY GALLERY
03.09-01.10.2022
In Manon van den Eedenʼs 'Hot Spellʼ, the top floor of FRED&FERRY finds a gush of fresh
air, inhabited by precise sculptural installations. While the half of the attic is left in its original rough, dirty and crooked state- the other half is rendered neat and bright with new lights, white paint and lifted platforms for display.
Her sculptural installations recalibrate personal elements of attraction. Thinking of bodies
pouring sweat, their eyesight blurred, minds confused, 'Hot Spell' references features from
heating and cooling elements. Their surfaces, shapes and finishes are scaled and tailored to
the exhibition space. Itʼs a matter of fit- of bodily relation.
The first thing you see upon entering are two sculptures circular and free standing- in what
could best be described as- a stab of completeness. The figure of mirror and circle, relate through the installations of 'Hot Spell', which transverse space, visitor, and material conditions alike.
Resting on high thin legs of beech wood, a room-filling platform displays a sculpture of two
connected curved mirrors. Two door openings, direct the angles from which to see the
sculpture, which reflects and contains the room in its bloated mirrors. The notion of 'turning
outward'.
On a wall, a ventilator is mounted horizontally, its proportions made to measure. The
skeletons of radiators and air-conditioners are designed with ribbed finishes, to touch as
much air as feasible. In the 18th century, home radiators were neatly designed into the
interiorʼs architecture. Fighting heat and cold depending on the season, regulating a liveable
temperature in our living spaces has been one of humankindʼs key challenges. And to
produce heat, we produce the cold, and the other way around.
In another space of the attic, is a niche, a space with two windows, a bizarre in-between
space in which Manon built a plateau; a new floor for her oval sculpture, made of what looks
like round mirrors pierced by the holder that binds them together. The room is freshly lit,
beaming white floating floorboards. The movement of images and the movement of people
mutually illuminate each other.[1]
Temperature binds us all under the same condition. The title of the exhibition 'Hot Spellʼ
references a movie from 1958 in which a family drama unfolds during a heatwave. A
cheating husband- his wife tries to keep his family together while everybody knows,
people pretend and play along. As goes with drama, it escalates: the man dies and life
continues as if nothing ever happened.
Growing up, Manon watched movies with her father who, as a cameraman, watched them
leaving the sound off. Like in 'Hot Spellʼ, - only shape, geometry and ambivalence left of
props that live with us.
Céline Mathieu
[1] Phrase by Mieke Bal, ʼThe Contemporary Condition, Exhibition-ism: Temporal
Togethernessʼ, Sternberg Press, 2020
[*] Phrase by Mieke Bal, ʼThe Contemporary Condition, Exhibition-ism: Temporal
Togethernessʼ, Sternberg Press, 2020
