Vadim Vosters

Liesbet Kusters

Light marks the border between the visible and the invisible. Beyond that border, shrouded by darkness, there are things we cannot see, but which are there all the same. The darkness of the image causes things around us to become part of us. What is illuminated, allows Visual activity, what remains in the dark, remains an unused potential, a sort of void. Yet, precisely because certain parts are illuminated, also those that remain in the darkness acquire meaning, namely through their presence. Precisely this presence "as a sort of being awake in a visually non-stimulating world" is more important to Vadim Vosters than the merely visual aspect.

This is what Vosters explores in his work, both in his paintings and in his installations. In 2005 he transformed the baroque chapel into the stage for a light installation, probing the relationship between light effects, the experience of space and human perception. Sixteen slide projectors combine into an image machine to create an image and restore in this darkness life to the altar. Each of these projectors re-creates a different fragment, a fragment that exit in its own right. The fragments combine with the architectural framework of the altar into a new image. By moving between the projector and the altar, the public alters the image.
Impressions disappear and make way for new ones. What once seemed two-dimensional, unfolds itself into layers and depths, part mater, part light. Vosters creates an atmosphere, immerses us in it and causes our perception to float on it.

The intangibility of light holds a promise of tangibility. In his endeavour to make this promise come true and lend his work a physical dimension, the artist attempts to catch the light. Through the use of the slide projectors this aspect becomes essential in the work. It is almost possible to literally " catch " the beams that radiate from the projectors and the surface on which they are projected becomes a web that traps them.
By manipulating the light, Vosters tries to control it and impose his will on it. To achieve this aim, he also manipulates the surface onto which the light is projected. He e.g. draws or paints onto parts of this surface, depending on the image projected, questioning the border between his interventionist and the projection. In the installations with intercoms it is particularly hard to distinguish between painted or drawn fragment and projected photographs. Here, on the interface between both, in this union of artificially focused light and constructed image, generated.

But light does not only create an image, it also defines our perception of the image. For even if its content remains unchanged, as the light changes, the image acquires meaning depending on the atmosphere created. From this point of view, Vosters defines how his work relates to the public. Whereas architecture and light are supposed to impart a certain feeling of security and protection, Vosters' installations create a sense of alienation. The focus of the artist's attention is the inability of the viewer to fathom the structure of the image, and the ensuing sense of discomfort and distress. The architectural labyrinth becomes a mental maze. We are situated in the middle of this maze and we perceive the outside world from there.

Excerpt of the catalogue of the exhibition "Pushing the Canvas" 2007
(Liesbet Kusters works for the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium)