Jesse van Epenhuijsen (1997) is a conceptual artist living and working in Rotterdam. He dwells within the domain of public space, working with spatial installations, performance, and text. Often, he finds himself in and around urban sites—situations where traces of human intervention are visible. He investigates what kind of influence they have with a highly sensitive approach. By giving care and attention to the places he inhabits for extended periods of time, he reconfigures architectural elements he finds in public space.
By highlighting specific elements and weaving them into works of art that sketch non-fictional spatial narratives, he, in his own words, tries to show us an invisible network of urban infrastructure, change, and affection.
Away From A Solid Support, 2023 - Series of rubber wall works created for the group exhibition "Nothing for Something" in Gallery Ellipsis, Amsterdam
"Nothing for something" is an exhibition that brought together a group of artists that, despite living and working in different cities, keep finding one another.
Just as their practices are connected through a common interest in questioning urban imperatives, the exhibition showcased a selection of works where shared readings of urban life were highlighted in the space of Gallery Ellipsis, Amsterdam.
A Thousand Mirages, 2023 - Work made for group exhibition "A brief wind of Telekinesis".
"A brief wind of telekinesis" was an exhibition by Jesse, Niya, and Emir. The exhibitapproached a relay race—a process through which three artists took turns passing each other the baton. Within this sporty dynamic, an archive of curiosities, personal history, and poetry appeared in "De Personeelskamer."
“Section E”, 2022 - This project was completed in collaboration with artist Fenna Koot. “Section E” explored different ways of processing site-specific information, such as seeing the building we were presenting the work in as an archive and recreating pieces of information on-site through performance and installation. This project was done in collaboration with Fenna Koot.
Through looking at the building as an archive, we created a multilayered presentation that used the architecture of the space to research and make visible socio-economic changes in the area and transformations that were not always present in the physical space.
Mobility Box, 2022 - The Mobility Box is a hybrid art piece that combines the function of a resting place while questioning if it’s really designed to sit or rest on. This work of art is loosely inspired by playground objects in the neighborhood of Amsterdam Sloterdijk at De Bouwput, where I organized a group exhibition with three other artists. The show focused on the incoherent cracks and overlaps of the urban infrastructure surrounding De Bouwput, a not-so white cube in Amsterdam Sloterdijk. The Mobility Box also presented a work of Hanna-Lee Daled on the left side of the box.
Ease of Access, 2022 - This fully functional work is designed to lean on when in need of some support. It is inspired by the handrails found in places where access might be impeded. I made three installations and
placed them in line next to each other without providing clear directions about where these practical assistants might take you. In order to figure out where you may need some extra support the work can be used directly to hang, lean, push and pull in different directions in the exhibition space. The work was presented at De Bouwput in Amsterdam Sloterdijk.
Possibility Work, 2022 - This work was created out of an incomplete apartment building with scaffolding around the perimeter surrounding exhibition space, hence the name, Possibility Work. The work still is, just like the building, under construction. I loosely recreated patterns you might find in scaffolding sites into wooden construction plates and weaved a printed construction cover throughout the work.
The printed construction cover was made in collaboration with textual artist Puck Kroon. During the development of the exhibition, we held a series of meetings where Puck visited us several times to document our process, just like a superintendent monitors the progress of a construction site.
The final work combines Puck’s words with a photograph. The words on the cover are partially visible, just as you might not fully understand what a finished building will look like if it’s still under construction.
Who Am I To You, 2021 - This spatial installation was a commissioned job for Stichting KOP in Breda. It was a project initiated
by the municipality of Breda to give the 1.5m distance in public space rule a positive twist in public
space. With a team of 3 other artists, we created a spatial installation that either engaged with the
1.5m rule or with the space that it was placed in. The installation was exhibited in the Westerpark in
Breda.
In order to understand the place we were intervening with, we asked the following questions: Is this a
place for passing or staying? Does this place have other artworks already and if not, is it necessary
to add? This last question introduced doubt for inserting art intotan foreign environment we had
never even visited.
For this reason, we created a spatial installation that ‘doubted’ itself, questioning its own role in the
environment it was placed in. 3 of the 5 flagpoles had a gear inside a box allowing the flags to be
moved upwards or downwards. In this way, the neighborhood could interact with the work and create
new combinations with the flags. In the end, 2 flags were stolen and 1 was lit on fire.
Precarious Publics, 2020 - This intervention was instigated by a long growing fascination with the ephemeral qualities of certain
objects in public space.
In my work I pay particular attention to details , especially in places with heavy traffic and interaction.
Often these sites have unnoticed potential, but their pace prohibits their potential from (re)
appearing. With Precarious Publics, I tried to capture the movement of the ‘bin bricks’, as I would
later on call them. These concrete blocks live underneath the public trash bins in Rotterdam, and
move through an invisible network of underground infrastructures. They are extremely heavy, made
of concrete, and yet disappear into thin air overnight.
It felt necessary to document one of these concrete blocks after dark, as it resonated with the way
they are operated: out of sight only to appear when no one is looking. I tried to make their fleeting
appearance more tangible by adding protective edges to the corners of the block, trying to visualize
a contradiction between fleeting and permanent.
