Complementing the book launch, Birde creates a display in the NICC Vitrine and curates a performance programme on Valentine’s Day (14/02 at 7 p.m.) with performers Cléo Totti and Jivan van der Ende.
Birde Vanheerswynghels (b. 1986) is best recognized for her monumental charcoal drawings of semi-imaginary, lush plant worlds. She based these mostly on historical documentation and stories of European ‘explorers’ but eventually went on a virtual journey herself to create new, fictional images.
Since 2020, Birde has been working on a series of portraits of individuals pursuing the image of androgynous beauty. The characters in the works are not portraits in the sense that they are made after life, but are based on photographs, a colour, a movement or a gesture. Initially Birde created her portraits in charcoal or green pigment on paper, but in 2022 she made the move to work with oil on canvas.
The book ‘A Glimpse Is All I Need’ brings together a nice selection of works from these last 10 years and includes a thoughtful text by Dagmar Dirkx, especially written for the book.
Thanks to the Flemish Government and the Flemish Community Commission, Collectie M HKA / Collectie Vlaamse Gemeenschap.
