With Within Reach, Sjoerd Knibbeler presents a selection of his work from the past five years at De.Groen. Attracted to the human endeavour – or dream – of discovering the world, he questions the fundamental laws of the photographic image. Can I photograph the wind? Or the universe? Taking the impossible as his starting point, he embarks on an associative process that focuses on the limits of human knowledge and ability.
In the video installation Forming Synchrony (2016), for example, he observes a group of French Air Force pilots rehearsing a flight routine. In total concentration, hands, fingers and heads with closed eyes sketch figures in the air. Without aircraft, the men are thrown back on their imagination and a dance between body and mind emerges.
Knibbeler often uses models to question the essential qualities of technology. The paper aeroplanes (Paper Planes, 2015) and wooden spaceships (Lunacy, 2017) will never achieve the purpose for which they were conceived. However, they do demonstrate the human desire and inventiveness that underlie these ideas.
In the experiments Knibbeler conducts in front of his lens, he poetically explores the boundaries of photography. In his Current Studies (2013-2016), for example, he seeks to make air currents visible. Falling Star (2016) is the result of a collaboration with Delft University of Technology, where he placed a meteorite in a wind tunnel to observe the moment of impact with the atmosphere.
Within Reach establishes connections between works that have not been seen together before. With the addition of several new works, Knibbeler offers a glimpse of what is to come.
