Writing custom algorithms, van den Dorpel creates compositions that fuse simplicity with complexity, providing viewers with an opportunity to engage in abstract and contemplative rhythms.
The title of this exhibition is borrowed from a musical piece released in 1983 by the Belgian composer Wim Mertens, generally positioned in the ‘Minimalist’ tradition. Working in the digital realm of visual production, Harm explores the similarities between the fundamental features of minimalist composition and the minimal units of digital display. Rather like the spare notes played in a musical composition, the rendering of pixels in certain positions and densities create visual compositions which our minds work upon, and which work upon our minds.
In creating these works, Harm researched how we relate to pixels, how they reveal something about how we perceive and mentally construct images. In this way, they touch on some of the same unsteady ground the Impressionists worked upon. The elusive coherency of strokes by Monet, or later Pointillist works by Seurat sought to find a place where perception, image, and emotion met. The point, particularly in the latter case of Pointillism, offers insight into the application of the pixel: the point is information, but it can only become meaningful in the presence of other points, and other minds.
About the artist
Harm van den Dorpel is represented by Upstream Gallery, and has exhibited previously at the New Museum in New York, MoMa PS1 New York, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art Beijing, Museum of Modern Art Warsaw, Museum Kurhaus Kleve, ZKM Karlsruhe, and the Netherlands Media Art Institute in Amsterdam. His work also sits in the collections of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and MAK Vienna, which became the first museum to acquire an artwork in Bitcoin when acquiring Harm’s work Event Listeners.
Image credit: (detail) Harm van den Dorpel, 'Struggle for Pleasure', 2024, courtesy Verse.
