Fishing Line Never Looked So Good – Janna Schoenberger

Saskia Olde Wolbers, Still from Trailer, 2005. 10 min video.

From time to time there comes an artist to remind you of tradition, the value of skill, the importance of excelling at a craft and constructing another world with ordinary materials and dexterous fingers. The best thing about Saskia Olde Wolbers is that she has incredible talent in creating objects, yet her work is still exciting and innovative. She is boundary-breaking by incorporating expertise and tradition in contemporary art. This summer, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam will be featuring Dutch-born artist Saskia Olde Wolbers in a solo exhibition, “The Falling Eye,” from June 24th through September 17th. Focused around her newest piece, Trailer from 2005, which is making its debut in the Netherlands, the show includes three other works Interloper (2003), Placebo (2002) and Kilowatt Dynasty (2000.)

Each of Olde Wolbers’ short narrative films is shot in a miniature set entirely created by the artist’s hand. The sets are submerged in water and with a tiny camera Olde Wolbers wanders and explores nooks and crannies like a submarine. The underwater effects can range from scarcely noticeable atmospheric changes, to air bubbles conspicuously clinging to the walls of the movie theater in Trailer. The probing camera occasionally hints at the found objects used to create the intricate scenes. A futuristic glass dwelling at one angle, for a moment, transforms into a vegetable oil bottle. In the sterile white surgical rooms in a hospital in Placebo, plastic cutlery is temporarily discernable. The most delicate, venomous flytraps from Trailer, are carefully assembled from fishing line. It is incredible that everything you see is created from scratch without digital manipulation, especially in a time where such renderings and animations are acceptable, even expected. Recalling tradition, in this case, with narrative and hand crafted work updates contemporary art with convention.

Situated both in an empty cinema in Wadena, Ohio, and in the jungle, Trailer is Algfar Dalio’s story of finding out about his biological parents through black and white film advertisements. Bits and pieces come together through film clips and the old woman cashier working at a theater, occupied by her knitting. In all of her narratives, Olde Wolbers bases her scripts on articles she has read in books, newspapers, magazines or tales she has overheard. The source for Dalio’s monologue is found in a documentary of Judy Lewis whose religious mother told her she was adopted to shield her daughter from an illicit affair with actor Clark Gable. Lewis only discovered her father’s identity after his death, movie footage being the way she learned most about her father. In Trailer, Dalio gathers from the cashier that his parents were flying on their way to shoot their break through film, in which they would star, as opposed the string of supporting roles, so small they would not always be included in the credits. The plane crashed and Ring Kittle and Elmore Vella were left stranded, their film never produced. In Hollywood fashion, Vella became addicted to native narcotic flytraps, causing their extinction, which were renamed in her honor. This narrative is a twisted horror version of a romance novel. The characters are never seen, the sets are empty, taking on a role of their own equal to that of the speaker.

Saskia Olde Wolbers’ compelling works are the artsy version of gossip column meets science fiction movie. Filming slowly, yet constantly moving, she puts time on hold for the speaker to tell her story and the viewer is immediately hooked. Olde Wolbers perfectly composes every aspect of the film, from the details in the cinema seats bolted to the floor to the narrators’ ever so slight, geographically revealing accents. The stories, in addition, filled with references and depth, provide enough interest to stay and listen again and again. “The Falling Eye” is a great excuse to visit Amsterdam this summer and view four first-rate films from up-and-coming Saskia Olde Wolbers.