A Poetic Exploration

In addition to the debut of Dubious Appeal, the exhibition encompasses works from three earlier series: Garage Stills, Fringe Nature, and Memory Master. Jacquie Maria Wessels (b. 1959) uses analogue photography to explore a diverse range of themes. The resulting works are both poetic and unsettling. 

Garage Stills is striking in its surprising use of colour. Visiting various car repair shops in locations from Amsterdam to Sri Lanka, the photographer captured these wondrous spaces in the form of intriguing still lifes, centred on the (sometimes personal) objects she spotted on site. The series served as something of a precursor to Fringe Nature, in which Wessels trained her lens on traces of nature in her everyday urban surroundings. 

In Dubious Appeal, the photographer investigates the tension between nature and industry. These compositions of flowers, shapes and colours seduce the viewer – but are simultaneously infused with a threatening quality. A similarly painterly aesthetic is found in the fourth series on display, Memory Master, a phantasmagorical sequence of silk-printed images exploring the notion of vanishing memories.