Shelter #6 – 27.8% gold, 2017
Replica of found situation, yellow gold leaf on aluminum
Ca. 80cm x 80cm x50 cm
Exhibitions
2017 Some Lies Are Extremely Beautiful, Annet Gelink Gallery.
On this occasion the artist presents a selection of new works among which the new series Shelter. In 2013 van Sonsbeeck made the Anti Drone Tent from gold Mylar emergency blankets to hide from the heat scanning gaze of drones. A technique it turned out the Taliban was also using for warfare. Now in 2017 the refugee crisis has given this work new meaning as daily photos arise of refugees wrapped in this same golden material to keep their bodies warm and sheltered from the gaze of others. And yet this shiny shelter also abstracts them into anonymous entities in a similar way as politics needs to abstract them to decide over their fate. Shelter is an attempt to research the emergency blanket in this new context.
