Saskia Olde Wolbers

Saskia Olde Wolbers
Still from Placebo 6 min video (2002)
Born	1971 Breda, The Netherlands
Notable work	Pareidolia, Deadline, Trailer

Saskia Olde Wolbers (born 1971) is a Dutch video artist who lives and works in London.

Background

Since the mid-1990s, Saskia Olde Wolbers has been developing fictional documentaries often loosely based on factual events. Her intricate videos are driven by a combination of otherworldly imagery – meticulously handmade model sets – and the apparent inner monologue of the voiceover in the audio book-like soundtrack. The films are shot underwater, miniature sets dipped in paint to create unstable imagery that abstractly illustrates the narrator's thought process.^[1] In her most recent works, the music soundtrack has been composed by Daniel Pemberton.

She has exhibited widely since 1998.^[2] Solo shows include: A Shot In The Dark at Vienna Secession, 2011; Goetz Collection, 2010; Mori Art Museum Tokyo, 2008; The Falling Eye at The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 2006; and Tate Britain, London, 2003.

Author and curator Phillip Monk describes in his book The Saskia Olde Wolbers Files,^[3] "Olde Wolbers not only joins fictional and documentary elements in her scripts, she links them to series of images, themselves fabricated and quite fantastic in their nature."

In 2008, Olde Wolbers lectured for the Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series.

Saskia Olde Wolbers is represented by Maureen Paley, London. She is a lecturer at Goldsmiths University.

Awards and prizes

Olde Wolbers has won the Baloise Prize (2003) and the Beck's Futures Prize (2004).^[4]

Exhibitions

Selected solo exhibitions

• 2014 Yes, these Eyes are the Windows, Artangel commission, London
• 2013 Kinemacolor, M - Museum Leuven
• 2012 Pareidolia, Maureen Paley, London
• 2011 A Shot In The Dark, Secession, Vienna
• 2011 Seven Screens Osram, Munich
• 2010 Goetz Collection, Munich
• 2008 Art Gallery of York University, Toronto
• 2008 Mam project, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
• 2007 Maureen Paley, London
• 2006 The Falling Eye, The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
• 2006 Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec
• 2005 South London Gallery, London
• 2004 Baloise Prize, SMAK, Ghent
• 2004 Now that part of me has become fiction, Kunsthalle, St. Gallen
• 2003 Lightbox Art Now Film and Video, Tate Britain, London

Selected Group exhibitions

• 2011 Monanism, Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania
• 2009 Manipulating Reality, CCCS, Florence
• 2008 Automated Cities, San Diego Museum of Art, California
• 2008 The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality, and the Moving Image, Part I: "Dreams", Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.

Videography

• 2011 Pareidolia
• 2007 Deadline
• 2005 Trailer
• 2003 Interloper
• 2002 Placebo
• 2000 Kilowatt Dynasty
• 1999 Day-Glo
• 1998 Cosmos
• 1997 Octet
• 1996 The Mary Hay Room

Further reading

• 2011 Saskia Olde Wolbers, A Shot in the Dark, Secession. ISBN 978-3-902592-42-2
• 2009 Monk, Phillip (2009). The Saskia Olde Wolbers Files. ISBN 978-0-921972-53-2.
• 2009 Automatic cities, The architectural image in contemporary art, Museum of contemporary art San Diego, Distributed by Distributed Art Publishers New York. ISBN 978-0-934418-71-3
• 2008 Saskia Olde Wolbers, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan. ISBN 978-4-902819-19-9 C0071
• 2008 The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality and the moving image, Hirshhorn Washington DC. ISBN 978-1-904832-50-8
• 2003 Now that part of me has become fiction, Artimo. ISBN 90-75380-88-7

References

1. A Shot in the Dark at secession
2. Saskia Olde Wolbers at Maureen Paley
3. Monk, Phillip (2009). The Saskia Olde Wolbers Files. ISBN 978-0-921972-53-2. Art Gallery of York University, Toronto Canada. Distributed by Distributed Art Publishers New York
4. Art News Saskia Olde Wolbers at Mori Art Museum Tokyo

External links

• Saskia Olde Wolbers website
• Yes, these Eyes are the Windows an Artangel commission Contemporary Art Society
• Artreview Saskia Olde Wolbers Artangel
• Does a house in Brixton hold the key to Vincent van Gogh?
• These walls had ears by Waldemar Januszczak
• Saskia Olde Wolbers Q & A with Tyler Green
• Deadline at Maureen Paley
• The Falling Eye at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
• Fishing Line Never Looked So Good NY arts Magazine
• Film art at the South London Gallery, BBC - collective
• Saskia Olde Wolbers wins Becks Futures
• Marcus Verhagen, Saskia Olde Wolbers, Frieze, Nov-Dec 2004
• Barry Schwabsky, Saskia Olde Wolbers, Tate Britain - London, ArtForum, Nov 2003
• Adrian Searle, Say it with flytraps, The Guardian, May 24, 2005