Nadine Baldow: Alive Matter
Eastern Edge is excited to present Alive Matter, a Main Gallery exhibition by our recent artist in residence, Nadine Baldow! Nadine has worked so incredibly hard in the studio to prepare for this show, and we cannot wait to share it with you. Join us for an opening reception on Friday, May 24th from 6-8pm!
Nadine will be giving a talk & tour of the exhibition during the reception, starting at around 6:30pm. You definitely do not want to miss it!! As usual, we will have snacks and refreshments to go around. Click here to RSVP to the Facebook event.
Nadine Baldow’s practice is informed by the current geological era, known as the Anthropocene, where traces of human activity become embedded within planet Earth. Are we still part of nature? Or have humans created a new kind of nature? Perhaps estrangement from nature started with a fence: did the first artificial boundary create a gap between man and nature?
Her solo exhibition Alive Matter at Eastern Edge Gallery follows her recent residency (March 29 – May 11, 2024) and is questioning the relationship between “nature” and “culture” on the Avalon Peninsula.
For six weeks, Baldow investigated the landscape by walking, driving, collecting, and engaging with local experts, including fishermen.
The exhibition consists of one site-specific sculpture and one wall piece stemming from this Landscape Investigation. The sculpture is a hybrid of “dead” and “alive” materials sourced locally, such as bones, feathers, fishing gear, moss, and driftwood. It has been developed specifically for Eastern Edge Gallery’s space.
Nadine Baldow (b. 1990, Dresden, Germany) is a visual artist based in Berlin whose work predominately addresses the complex relationship between “culture” and “nature” and their ongoing impact on each other. She is observing this relationship on many different levels and raises questions like: Are we still part of nature? What is “nature” after all? Is the planet, as we have shaped it, the “new nature”?
Baldow completed her studies at the Academy of Fine Art Arts in Dresden as professor Eberhard Bosslet’s master-class student (meisterschülerin), after completing a traditional woodcarving apprenticeship in the Alps.
Since 2020 her site-specific sculptures are informed by landscape investigation. Now, her use of materials is linked to her fieldwork about the environment she is working with. “The presence of certain materials tells a lot about how people are entangled with the place – they are somehow intimate with the landscape they interact with. ” Various solo presentations of her site-specific sculptures came into existence most notably in Ireland (Leitrim Sculpture Centre), Iceland (SIM Gallery), Germany (Public Art Sculpture commissioned by MS Artville), Slovenia (Rezindeca Gornji Grad), and Lithuania (Verpejos Residency).
In addition to her sculptural practice, the artist exposes herself to various situations of friction to challenge her relationship with nature, such as shepherding a freely moving flock or living in a hut in the forest without electricity or running water.
Baldow produced several public space interventions in South Korea, India, Japan, and Germany. Her work has been exhibited in Switzerland, Ireland, Iceland, Lithuania, Slovenia, Malta, Japan, Germany, Poland, Czech, the Netherlands, South Korea, and India. Numerous galleries and museums such as Haus am Lützowplatz Berlin, Kunstmuseum Heidenheim, Urban Nation – Museum for Urban Contemporary Arts Berlin, Valetta Contemporary (Malta), Leitrim Sculpture Centre (Ireland), Halle 14 – Center for Contemporary Arts (Leipzig, Ger- many) have featured Nadine Baldow’s work in the past. She has been represented on several art fairs, such as the Contemporary Art Week Delhi, OSTRALE – the International Exhibition for Contemporary Art in Dresden, and the ArtFair Düsseldorf.
Her work has been exhibited in Switzerland, Ireland, Iceland, Malta, Germany, Poland, Czech, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Slovenia, South Korea, Japan and India.
View the exhibition virtually!
Photo Documentation
Photo Credit: Laura Sbrizzi
