Karin van Dam (1959) and Robbie Cornelissen (1954) have worked together on several occasions, in 2017 and 2019 they developed installations at the Cacaofabriek Helmond and the Biennale of Karachi, in which they questioned the boundaries between object and image by apposing three dimensional works, drawings and animations. Since then, both artists have explored new paths. After embarking on a journey through Canada, van Dam’s usual focus on urban structures shifted to organic forms and their underlying geometric patterns. In a similar manner, Robbie Cornelissen’s 2019 residency in Japan allowed him to test different realms. In his latest work, the artist lets go of his guiding role as draftsman and gives a wide interpretive scope to the viewer, letting abstraction become part of his drawings. In the central space of the gallery, the work of Cornelissen and Van Dam comes together once again, merging the flat and the three-dimensional, but this time also the architectural and the organic. In this sense, Places We Have Never Been Before refers not only to the artists’ literal exploration of space as a notion, but to the latest shifts in their artistic practices: opening up new dimensions in which to create.

At the Textiel Lab of the Textile Museum Tilburg, Karin van Dam began to experiment with new materials some time ago. Among these was synthetic felt, which she decided to cut using laser in order to create intricate symmetrical patterns. Two works in the Places We Have Never Been Before exhibition feature this technique: an untitled piece that evokes a pair of huge wings -perhaps of a headless insect? - and a smaller piece titled “Raat” or “Cell”, referring to the structure of a honeycomb cell made of laser cut natural felt. Entomological references (related to the study of insects) in van Dam’s work are common, but her focus in these beings’ anatomical features is more of a visual than a taxonomic nature. Like a kind of magnifying glass, the artist takes up some geometric elements within organisms, and constructs works that suggest animal morphology, but do not fully imitate their physique, remaining autonomous works of art in their own right. Karin van Dam's new developments at the Textiellab were carried out with the generous support of the Mondrian Fund.