▍Exhibition Background and Artist Introduction
ReassemBling marks the Taiwanese debut of Dutch artist Lily de Bont (b. 1958), renowned for her radical approach to painting. De Bont’s practice involves cutting unpainted canvases into loose strands, creating flexible, transformable structures that merge painting with a process she calls “reverse weaving.” This technique challenges the boundaries of traditional painting, presenting a deconstruction and reassembly of the medium. De Bont remarks, “Painting seems to be reduced to its essentials, yet this does not make the works appear simple. Instead, they display dynamic and complex compositions, with gravity playing a pivotal role.”
In recent years, De Bont has further introduced “movement” into her works. Her paintings rotate counterclockwise, allowing the loosened threads to sway, as if retracing time through reverse weaving. A residency in Berlin profoundly influenced her practice, adding somber tones dominated by what she calls “Berlin Blue.” Her compositions subtly echo the city’s geographical isolation, architectural forms, the history of the Berlin Wall, the textures of its streets, and its layered past.
▍Historical Context and Technical Evolution
Lily de Bont’s work continues and expands upon the modernist inquiry into the essence of painting initiated in the 20th century. Her approach resonates with Lucio Fontana’s Concetto Spaziale (Spatial Concept) series, beginning in 1949, where the canvas was not merely a surface for paint but a material to be pierced, cut, and redefined. While Fontana’s slashes reimagined the relationship between painting and space, De Bont advances this conversation by reconstructing her canvases into structural, woven forms.
Her technique also recalls Eva Hesse’s sculptural works from the 1960s, particularly her use of rope, nets, and flexible materials to create “anti-form” structures. Like Hesse, who emphasized material tactility and temporal qualities, De Bont’s reverse weaving introduces a pliable texture and adaptability, allowing her works to transform with their environment and the force of gravity. This dynamic quality liberates her pieces from static objecthood, rendering them traces of time’s passage.
▍Berlin’s Influence and the Integration of Time
Berlin, a pivotal turning point in De Bont’s artistic journey, deeply informs her current works. During her residency, she adopted “Berlin Blue” as a central motif, arranging loose threads in patterns that metaphorically mirror Berlin’s urban landscape: the lines of the Wall, the textures of the city’s streets, and the echoes of its history. Her canvases evoke the psychological and geographical impact of the Wall, transforming its narrative into an abstract visual language.
This period also inspired her exploration of movement and time. In recent works, the counterclockwise rotation of her canvases allows threads to “dance,” a symbolic act of reversing time. This motion is more than a formal gesture—it is a poetic attempt to unravel and reconstruct memories and histories through the medium’s inherent qualities.
▍Connections with Contemporary Art
De Bont’s practice aligns with broader currents in contemporary art that deconstruct and reconfigure traditional media. Her technique draws parallels to the fiber art of Sheila Hicks, who uses woven materials to create sculptural forms that challenge the conventional definitions of craft. Similarly, De Bont employs weaving, but her reverse process interrogates the foundational elements of painting and situates her within the modernist lineage of material and formal inquiry.
Her works also resonate with Hiroshi Sugimoto’s explorations of time, albeit in a different medium. While Sugimoto captures the stillness and continuity of time through photography, De Bont reconstructs its flow through the dynamic interplay of lines and movement. Both artists provoke profound reflections on the nature of time, memory, and their representation in art.
▍Conclusion: Weaving Reflections of Time
Tracing the Threads of Time showcases not only Lily de Bont’s artistic achievements but also her response to the timeless question, What is painting? Starting from the fundamental elements of canvas and line, she redefines the vocabulary of painting, imbuing it with multidimensional possibilities.
These gravity-driven strands, dynamic structures, and interwoven traces of memory and emotion elegantly prompt us to reflect on time, history, and existence. De Bont’s works remind us that art is not merely a record of the present but a dialogue with the past and an invocation of the future. Through her practice, she offers a profound meditation on the elasticity of time and the enduring power of creativity.
