Willem de Rooij. Birds

Throughout March 2009, Cubitt Gallery welcomes a specially commissioned installation by Dutch artist Willem de Rooij (b. 1969), entitled 'Birds'. De Rooij's thoughtful research on the cultural resonance of artifacts and the afterlife of visual mass-distribution have lead to successful solo projects and collaborations (as part of artist-duo de Rijke / de Rooij), along with acclaimed exhibitions at international institutions, such as Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, K21 Düsseldorf and MAMBo museum for Modern Art, Bologna. De Rooij is a professor at Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main and at De Ateliers in Amsterdam. The installation 'Birds' at Cubitt marks the third leg of a triptych of temporary installations, constructed by De Rooij over a period of two years at galleries in Paris (Chantal Crousel, 'The Floating Feather', 2006) and Cologne (Gallerie Buchholz, 'Birds in a Park', 2007). Each of these three projects is inspired by another work of 17th century Dutch painter Melchior d'Hondecoeter (1636-1695). In these recent productions of De Rooij, d'Hondecoeter's paintings_were the starting point of different spatial compositions that each combine a variety of contemporary artistic practices and historical artifacts, resulting in a compelling series of temporal groupings that express a personal account on the distribution of the cultural identity and memory, collecting and display.

Willem de Rooij
Birds
Kurator: Bart van der Heide