Germaine Kruip, Real Time

The Approach is pleased to present Real Time, Germaine Kruip’s sixth solo exhibition with the gallery.

Germaine Kruip’s practice is rooted in the distinct yet interconnected realms of stage (theatre, cinema, performance), architecture, and visual arts. Real Time features a constellation of site-specific light pieces within a darkened transformation of the gallery space.

Initially trained as a scenographer for the theatre, Kruip has fostered a dynamic exchange between the fields of visual arts and theatre throughout her career. Some of her light performances for the theatre have been reimagined in the context of galleries and museums, while elements from these environments have, in turn, influenced her theatrical works.

By combining traditional theatre spotlights with advanced LED technology, Kruip proposes here a synergetic exchange between white cube and black box that divides the main gallery in two. Upon entering the first half of the space, visitors are met with two slowly pulsing abstract light compositions. The works emanate a contemplative atmosphere, inviting reflection on concepts of positive and negative space, the frames of our visual field, the mechanics of perception, and the passage of time itself.

In the second half of the space—wider and darker—visitors can sit on a bench to engage with a monumental yet elusive light composition created in real time. The gallery’s existing architecture becomes a blank canvas for a filmic interplay of light and shadow. As visitors adjust to the darkness, their pupils dilate, and their field of vision shifts to a heightened sensorial perspective, encompassing the entire space. Kruip’s artworks become most tangible once the eye has adjusted to the darkness, requiring the visitor to fully surrender to the light—its presence and its absence. The feeling of being submerged becomes a ritual the viewer must go through so that their perceptions become heightened and altered.

Time and light become film. Kruip’s pieces are experienced as if an abstract film is being created in real time. Designed to encourage visitors to spend a specific duration in the gallery, the light compositions draw on the legacies of avant-garde cinema, exploring the interplay of mental and physical images, the convergence of reality and fiction, and the liminal spaces between them.