On various scales, patterns and structures permeate our universe. Think about the grid in which atoms settle to form crystals, the natural reoccurring fractals found in flora or the giant interstellar clusters of galaxies. Paradoxically, when we peer deep into this ordered universe of things we often find chaos staring back at us. If not opposites, how are order and chaos related? 

“Most of reality, in stead of being orderly, stable and equilibrial, is seething and bubbling with change, disorder and process. […] It is inherently impossible to determine in advance which direction change will take: whether the system will disintegrate into ‘chaos’ or leap to a new, higher level of ‘order’ or organization.” Alvin Toffler 

Annouk Thys mostly works with ceramic materials such as glaze and porcelain. During her study at LUCA Gent, she already knew that experimenting was important to her. Bringing together different materials - both ceramic and glaze - feels like an investigation into the behavior of these materials, how they interact and how things work. An interaction that initially arises as 'self-forming'.  

Different layers of glaze are brought together and each finds its way. A stacked arrangement that leads to unexpected transformations due to the heating process in the kiln. Gravity, time and space also have their influence. This interplay of experiment, creation and coincidence is what challenges Thys and leads to the creation of new forms. These forms make processes tangible and show us what usually remains invisible. Notions of the landscape, time and elements of nature appear repeatedly in her work. By putting glaze and porcelain in the foreground, an elliptical and fascinating universe emerges through their mysterious poetry. 

"I make sculptures because I like to avoid words. My irrepressible need to build with clay, hempcrete, or any other collected object from the street is more telling. These ensembles of handmade or industrial shapes are like pawns in a large, modular game with an infinite number of possible collages. They evoke many different things, but pinning them down is more problematic; are they sexual? Vegetal? Animal? I aim to encourage this ambiguity, and hope to provoke curiosity, discomfort or disgust. What ultimately guides my work, however, is representing nature, parts of our bodies, our insides and the fluids that circulate in all living things. After working on a series of pieces for a while, everything starts to make sense – all the uncertain decisions taken during the process lead to this. It works. This is why I make sculptures." 

The starting point of the work by Céline Vahsen (b. 1987) is the cultural legacy of the textile medium. Her research includes various references and traditions from geographically dispersed, hybrid cultures, as well as customs from different periods throughout the history of weaving. From a contemporary perspective, she explores techniques that are rooted in ancestral textile creation. Her main interest is the socio-cultural dimension of textiles and their emotions – movement. In most societies, textile knowledge was communicated, transmitted and preserved through gestures. This heritage has been enriched by exchanges and passed on, mainly by women, using their hand as a tool, making it embodied knowledge. A woven fabric is thus never empty, it contains a story and a narrative. 

 
Weaving creates a fundamental and tangible structure itself. Without crossing threads, fabric would not exist. With an aleatory approach, Vahsen allows for randomness in the emergence of patterns – minimal coloured rhythms – revealed during the manual weaving process. The final composition of these canvases become pure images by themselves. The focus is the interplay of abstraction and natural colors. Blurry or monochrome impressions appear as the artist interacts with visual perception. The resulting fabric is presented frontally, the effects are stretched on frames, making it possible to view the colors in vibration. 

Kaïn Walgrave (b. 1990) is fascinated by becoming. Where does it come from and where does it go. In his daily practice he starts from a multitude of materials, techniques and styles, where archiving and creating flow together. The work shows itself as an archive that is constantly being reformulated. Each time in a new constellation in which a variety of works find their place. The mutual connections that become visible expose the internal logic of the archive. These intermediate stages do not so much show a final result, but rather a growing number of cross-pollinations.    

Walgrave cherishes the idea that things will never find a final place. He is aware of the paradoxical impossibility of archiving his productions and sees in it a beauty that goes beyond the image. Material becomes image after which it becomes material again. The meaning is not to be found in the image, but between the images. In the constantly changing context that they themselves create. 

Lisette de Greeuw (b. 1990) works in, around and through language, using transformation as a method and translation as a matter. She developed a lexicon based on embroidery patterns for making images, which creates a threshold with the viewer while simultaneously acts as a tool to do the actual work. She holds on to this structure to build images that can be filled with new meaning – independent of the material, medium or scale of the work. By repeating a simple act over and over again, and often losing concentration, ‘mistakes’ start to appear, the acceptance of which leads to the creation of new forms. 

Her work involves an experience of permanent transformation in which the boundary between original and a copy becomes radically unclear. Making different works through transformations, she’s testing the structural limits of communication, attempting to reveal the problems and enrichments of language and translation. Does language form meaning or the other way around? 

Muesli (b. 2014) creates works that are permeable to the context in which they unfold: installations and paintings that undergo a visible metamorphosis due to changing invisible factors. 

 Ever renewing, the Unruly Paintings behave in a constant state of transition. Highly sensitive to the ambient humidity (the ever-changing quantity of water in the air), the paintings present an infinite range within a given spectrum, always depicting a precise moment. Water is both the medium and the subject, the binder and the revealer of the paintings.  
 
The sensitive materials used (humidity indicator with various fibres of fabric, wood and aluminium) interact with each other as well as their surroundings. The space the paintings occupy becomes the ‘shell’ for them to inhabit and adapt to according to its architectural properties. Thus the work does not stem from aesthetic desires but is the confluence of material, atmosphere and time. 

The Ancient Greek term κῦμα (pronounced Kima) means wave, the physical movement on the surface of a liquid layer. In physics, a wave describes dynamic disturbances of a physical quantity around a position of equilibrium. By controlling the vertical position of each of the twenty-five spheres, κῦμα produces a discrete 3D levitating choreography. Randomly activated fans interact with the spheres, disturbing their movements by blowing from above: the choreography patterns are broken, becoming unstable or even chaotic. A control loop feedback mechanism counteracts this tendency towards chaos; its efficiency varies over time, highlighting the impact of its action. 

Thanks to the mathematical equations defining the physical laws of the system, κῦμα controls itself through the real-time processing of multiple signals from sensors and motors. The analogue signals of the physical system are used as raw data to generate digital visuals reinterpreting the movements, disturbances and deviations of the spheres and airflows. 

Midway between kinetic art, digital technology and creative coding, κῦμα sheds light on two hidden sciences that permeate our daily lives: automation and control theory. Dealing with the modelling, analysis and control of dynamical systems, they allow to reduce human intervention in engineered processes and machines, assuring levels of precision and stability beyond our reach. Are these complex technologies, with their far-reaching potential, revealing the desire to control our surroundings? How much power holds in their hands, they who can emerge patterns and structures out of chaos?  

κῦμα is a creation by Ohme and its lab team: François Bronchart, Florian Jehin, Teo Serra and Raoul Sommeillier. Visuals by Frederik Vanhoutte. 

Winnie Claessens (b. 1989) mainly works within the fields of video, installation and scenography, focusing attention on crafts and the technical aspects of these artistic disciplines. Starting from an amazement for the beauty and absurdity of a project, the artist sets herself up as a researcher. By means of meticulous observations, she imitates things as truthfully as possible and tries to understand the subject matter. This results in video work and models. Claessens is very interested in cinematographic techniques and loves a theatrical representation in which she dramatizes her subject.  

The video series Contingency Blend (2018 – ...) analyses movements during incidental situations, like pigeons wandering through the park or people riding a chairlift, which leads to the creation of a musical composition. By precisely visualizing the motions on a grid, different sounds are triggered in various layers, resulting in surprising symphonies.