Lot 78: EDWIN ZWAKMAN (b.1969 Dutch)

EDWIN ZWAKMAN (b.1969 Dutch)
Fly-Over II, 1996
oversized chromogenic print, printed 2006
signed in ink on typed label with credit, title, date and edition '5/5' on backing board
118 x 47in. (300 x 120cm.)

Guldemond (ed.), Edwin Zwakman: Façades, Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, 1999, pp.7-9; Van den Heuvel & Metz, Nature as Artifice: New Dutch Landscape in Photography and Video Art, NAi, 2008, p.177 (fig.E); Edwin Zwakman: Fake but Accurate, Schirmer/Mosel, 2008 (to be published this autumn), rear endpaper (fig.G).

DISTINCTIVELY DUTCH
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.
This print is number 5 from the sold-out edition of 5 + 2 HC.

Zwakman painstakingly constructs from memory maquettes of simulated landscapes then photographs them with a large-format camera. These elaborate models, which resemble miniature film sets, are built from various materials, such as cardboard, wood, plastic and cotton wool.

In his early work Fly-Over II, we see a bird's-eye view of a world in miniature. The artist collaged his 'collected impressions' to reconstruct a make-believe Dutch landscape with a central grid of motorways, rivers, a coastline and various types of buildings from 1960s tower blocks to a water-purification plant. Humans are absent from this scene yet signs of their activity are everywhere.

Zwakman pays meticulous attention to lighting, framing and perspective to create an illusion of realism. The details in a photograph of an actual landscape function to reinforce the real. In this photograph of a model landscape, however, the details break down the illusion of reality and reveal the image-making process. Measuring three metres high, the encyclopedic Fly-Over II represents a unique interpretation of Dutch landscape photography.

Zwakman earned his post-graduate degree from the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam. He is the recipient of numerous awards and his works have been exhibited internationally, including solo shows at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven in 1999 and at the Huis Marseille, Amsterdam in 2008. Key group exhibitions include Netherlands Now and Nature as Artifice. Zwakman lives and works in Amsterdam.