STUDY

The Detached Gaze

[person_by] Hiryczuk / Van Oevelen Sjoerd van Oevelen Elodie Hiryczuk

August 2021

The Detached Gaze presents a collection of sources on visual perception and alternative ways of representing space within the realm of photography and painting. As visual artists/ photographers we aim to analyse how these images can affect our gaze on a fundamental level and change the way we relate to the world. With this project we share and archive our artistic research. This research was often done in the first conceptual stages of our projects and has created a theoretical context for our photographic work to arise from. We hope this collection will function as a place for discussion and lead to some insights into new ways of seeing. The title refers to the Japanese term ‘Riken no ken’ which means ‘watching with a detached gaze’ or literally ‘looking in an unprejudiced way’. For centuries it has been used in Japanese garden making as an important empirical method to perceive the garden space to its fullest extend. It encourages the beholder to look in an active, wandering and open-minded way in order to experience the phenomena of nature.

Hiryczuk / Van Oevelen
Hiryczuk / Van Oevelen is a collaboration between artists/ researchers Elodie Hiryczuk (1977, Avignon) and Sjoerd van Oevelen (1974, Steenbergen). They are interested in the workings of perception in humankind's relationship to nature and the landscape. The differences and similarities between Western and Eastern traditions of painting and photography deeply shape their work and thinking.

Sjoerd van Oevelen
Sjoerd van Oevelen (b. 1974) is a Dutch artist and researcher based in Amsterdam. He collaborates with Elodie Hiryczuk under the name Hiryczuk/ Van Oevelen. Their work explores the workings of perception in humankind's relationship to nature and the landscape.

Elodie Hiryczuk
Elodie Hiryczuk (b. 1977) is a French/ Dutch artist and researcher based in Amsterdam. She collaborates with Sjoerd van Oevelen under the name Hiryczuk/ Van Oevelen. Their work explores the workings of perception in humankind's relationship to nature and the landscape.

works

Works in This Study

Ex Libris, Benjamin March, 1927

Benjamin March

A Note on Perspective in Chinese Painting

text

The most general criticism aimed at Chinese paintings by Westerners seems to be concerned with the representation of distance, and very often takes the form: Chinese paintings have no perspective. This is, of course, not only untrue, but it is not what the critic meant to say.

A. and Pangeometry (image 6), El Lissitzky, 1925

El Lissitzky

1925

A. and Pangeometry, El Lissitzky, 1925

text

Perspective is nothing but a convention for representing distance, and though the term is sometimes limited to mean the type of projection generally used in the West, it properly includes any and all devices for representing three dimensions in tw …

Hiryczuk / Van Oevelen Elodie Hiryczuk Sjoerd van Oevelen

2015

What is a Detached Gaze?

text

The Detached Gaze presents a collection of images and texts Hiryczuk / Van Oevelen have collected during their artistic research over the past 5 years.

Sceneries – Girl Making a Model of a Landscape (after Hokusai), Hiryczuk / Van Oevelen, 2005

Hiryczuk / Van Oevelen Elodie Hiryczuk Sjoerd van Oevelen

2014

Seeing is of Course Also an Art

text

Photography is generally understood as a means to produce images of reality. The analogy between the optical functioning of the photographic lens and our human eye even makes us believe that photography generates an accurate representation of what we see.

Pope Benedict’s Inauguration in 2005 vs. Pope Francis’ Inauguration in 2013, Hiryczuk/ Van Oevelen, 2005, 2013

Hiryczuk / Van Oevelen Elodie Hiryczuk Sjoerd van Oevelen

2015

From the Acting to the Seeing

text

From a philosophical point of view the thoughts behind Pangeometry share many resemblances with Eastern concepts in which reality is not exclusively considered from a human perspective.

DESIGNED AND DEVELOPED BY SINDS1967