IN-DEPENDANCE by IBASHO is proud to present ‘Navigating Mystery’, a duo exhibition presenting works of two Dutch artists Tjitske Oosterholt & Justus de Rode, opening on 25 January 2025.
In ‘Navigating Mystery’, Tjitske Oosterholt and Justus de Rode explore the spectrum of reason and emotion. Simultaneously embracing research and the unknowable, they aim to explore mystery. In today’s complex and changing world, western modernity often relies on finding truth in reason and data. However, an attempt to grasp this complexity through rationality alone, generally creates an even more abstract reality, consisting of words and numbers. In response to modernity’s disenchantment, perhaps meaning can be found in accepting uncertainty.
As part of this exhibition, Tjitske Oosterholt’s series ‘A Continual Unfolding’ is an exploration of the uncontrollable, by embracing the unknown and remaining open to what emerges. Using Polaroid photographs with their inherent unpredictability, she follows where the material leads her, engaging with uncertainty. Through the creation of collages, a constructive interaction with the unexpected and the unfamiliar is established, creating scenes that resemble landscapes, and the formation and disruption of natural phenomena. Due to the distortion of the film, the pieces are never fully set, constantly asking the viewer to pay attention, and to give in to the uncertainty of not knowing what the work might look like in the future. The instability of the materials, as well as the imagery of natural scapes, create room for reflection on what our interaction with our surroundings brings about.
In ‘Navigating Mystery’, Justus De Rode shows a selection of works from his new series ‘Views of Nature’(2024), inspired by the thinking and travelogues of 19th-century naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, father of ecology. Through toning cyanotypes — a popular documentation tool among 19th-century botanists — with a variety of natural tannins, the series aims to adopt a more earthly character that mirrors the natural world while aiming to spark a sense of wonder and mysticism through their subject matter and pictorialism. Using excerpts from his eponymous travelogues as both titles and starting points for the works, ‘Views of Nature’(2024) reflects Humboldt's plea for sensibility, suggesting a potential antidote to the modern day alienation.
Tjitske Oosterholt (1991, Amsterdam, The Netherlands) has moved from graphic design and artistic research to a creative practice in between, in which she aims to combine both intuitive and experimental visual images. In 2020, she received the ‘Kunstenaar Start' grant from the Mondriaan Fund, followed by several project fundings. Since then, she has done residencies in Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands, and her work has been shown nationally and internationally at multiple exhibitions and fairs such as Unseen Amsterdam and Pan Amsterdam.
Justus de Rode (1997, Groningen, The Netherlands) is a visual artist living and working in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Working with photography, alternative printing processes and mixed media, De Rode explores subjects from natural history, geology and ecology that reflect topics from his personal life and interests. Usually set in nature, a recurring theme is the interplay of reason and feeling in human perception. In 2022, he obtained a MA in Film & Photographic Studies at Leiden University. In 2023, he published his second book 'Mycelium', which was featured in Dutch newspapers ‘Het Parool’ and ‘Het Dagblad van het Noorden’, besides several international magazines. His series ‘Views of Nature’ (2024), on show here at IN-DEPENDANCE, has been shown at The Gallery Club, Helder Gallery, and will be exhibited at Art Rotterdam in March, 2025.
The exhibition ‘Navigating Mystery’ runs from 25 January 2025 until 16 March 2025.
