Double solo

Fear isn’t so difficult to understand.

After all, weren’t we all frightened as children? Nothing has changed since Little Red Riding Hood faced the big bad wolf. What frightens us today is exactly the same sort of thing that frightened us yesterday. It’s just a different wolf. This fright complex is rooted in every individual. Alfred Hitchcock

At first glance it seems as if something is not right in the compositions of Stefan Serneels (BE). Empty stairwells, domestic interiors, distorted perspectives and unrecognizable enigmatic figures are the main elements of Serneels’ labyrinthine work. The color palette in his paintings and drawings is usually limited to black and white. The series A Narrative remix refers to cartoon drawings or a drawn diary although all text is omitted.

In the work of Guy Vording (NL), the text he leaves visible is actually essential and also the title of his ongoing series Black Pages. Underlying his choice of subjects is Vording’s fascination with loneliness and isolation, themes that consciously and unconsciously are always part of his work. In the domesticity and melancholy zeitgeist of the original American magazine pages from the 1930s to 1950s, a love of film noir and Hitchcock suspense shines through, sometimes with a wink.

Both artists dialogue with each other with a selection of drawings in the double solo Fear isn’t so difficult to understand.

courtesy of Whitehouse Gallery