Annie Gentils Gallery

A hand reaches out from the past, looking to touch.

A medieval tapestry that hangs in the Musée de Cluny in Paris gives its phantom hand to rough felt and wooden board dyed and manipulated in Namur.

Heat leaves its shadow as it burns away wood and fibre. This way, the imprint of a hand into wood is touched doubly by the embroidered hand of five centuries past and by the laser that burns, transforming substance into smoke.

These small fires flash for an instance and leave in their wake afterimages of the past, cropped and made anew for modern eyes. The afterimage settles into a swirl of European Indigo.

Although opposite to fire, the wet sea is also not immune to heat. Colonies of algae in the sea turn rust-coloured as temperatures rise, weaving the waves into a red tide.

This process is called algal bloom and speaks to the inherent ability of leaves, roots and flowers to stain and leave their colour behind. This power has been harnessed by humans for dye, but is also representative of organic processes of protection in the natural world. Skin is an organ that also blushes.

Blush is a rush of blood surging under the surface.

Much like the tinted earth that takes colour from iron oxides. Damp earth as clay reddens under heat as ceramic forms are fired.

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Excerpt from TOUCH:

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AN ENDLESS SPIRAL OF POTENTIALITIES

FOR KNOWLEDGE-GATHERING

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by Max Ferguson,

commissioned by the Goethe-Institute Brussels in 2024

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