Frederik De Wilde, Beyond the Liminal: Ultra Black Art In Dark Times

Elise Aspord

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From the first human artistic expression in cave paintings until now, black has been constantly reinvented by art. Like other 20th-century artists (Rothko, Malevic, Klein) before him have done, Belgian Frederik De Wilde explores the nature of colors and produces monochromatic works, but focusing on black in a radical and scientific manner.
In Hostage, as art historian Elise Aspord explains, he has created a material made up of a vertical alignment of nanotubes of carbon that can absorb almost all rays of light, thus giving a new universal reference for black.
This work is the result of a close collaboration between scientists and an artist. It adheres to an aesthetic of the void and raises a paradox, making the darkness visible. Frederik De Wilde and his mysterious nanoblack invite the spectator to feel the “black shock” that is experienced when watching the unknown and the invisible.

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Elise Aspord: Frederik De Wilde, Beyond the Liminal: Ultra Black Art In Dark Times
PostScriptUM #11
Series edited by Janez Janša
Language: English
Publisher: Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana
Represented by: Marcela Okretič
Proofreading: Eric Dean Scott
Design: Luka Umek
Layout: Sonja Grdina
(c) Aksioma | Text and image copyrights by authors | Ljubljana 2014
Printed and distributed by: Lulu.com
In the framework of Masters & Servers
The project Hostage was powered by Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA.
The exhibition was organized in the framework of the ARSCOPE project and supported by the Culture Programme (2007–2013) of the European Union, the Flemish Ministry of Culture, Belgium, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the Municipality of Ljubljana.

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