‘Defined as one of six simple machines, the wedge can be seen as a building block of which all complex machines are composed. It can plug, level or splice. It can lift, cut or hold an object in place. Not only does the wedge represent the most elementary aspects of all human technologies, it also embodies the connection between the natural and the cultural. An essential shape that occurs spontaneously in nature— as rocks, ice, roots or grains of sand as they erode the landscape — has been abstracted by the human gaze over time. It is put to use, streamlined, industrialized. But even in the most precise of environments, the wedge can symbolize the primordial, intuitive side of technology, holding open the doors that would otherwise automatically close, setting a standardized table straight on the cobblestones, preventing a truck from rolling down an unpredictable hill: the simple machine that might as well be a rock. […]’
The Wedge
Lodewijk Heylen, Liesbet Grupping
opening 10 november from 18:00
exhibition runs until 22 December 2023
violet
Eugeen Joorsstraat 22
2140 Antwerp BE
