Artist’s talk at 6 pm with artists Anne Eggebert and Polly Gould

Why does the landscape look like it does, what is it and how do we define it? These are all questions
explored by artist Almut Rink who specifically investigates artificial reproductions of nature and how these
may affect or alter our experience of it. Drawing on the three dimensional software used by landscape
architects and designers, Rink has developed film installations which take the viewer on imaginary journeys
through fictional landscapes which thematise the notion of nature. By using software to create something
which is understood to be ‘natural’, Rink questions our most basic notions of nature and highlights the
paradoxes inherent in creating man made landscapes. Taking the title Foamywater from one of the
landscaping software menus, Rink discloses the framework by which these images are made, and reduces
the once wild, brutal and dangerous elements of nature into a tamed and mediated experience.

The artificiality of nature is presented in much of Rink’s practice, including a recent project “Contact Zone”,
an installation made following a residency in the Brijuni island, Croatia where she explored the island’s
historical context and in particular the acquisition of exotic animals for one of the first zoos. In exploring
these man made experiences of the wild Rink also presents how the notion of landscape reflects our
national, social and political identities.

Artists Anne Eggebert and Polly Gould have collaborated on many projects exploring the history and
architecture of landscapes. Previous projects include Nature and Nation: Vaster than Empires and In the
Botanic Garden. "Operating in locations used to promote knowledge or collate certain domain of thought,
their work often subverts, unravels, or plays at the edges of presented discourses." (Kivland, Sanderson
and Cocker 2004). Eggebert and Gould will discuss Rink’s work in the artist’s talk on 30th September.

Almut Rink, born 1971 in Erfurt, Germany, lives and works in Vienna. She studied at the Academy of Fine
Arts and her exhibitions include a.o.: “Rebound“, Yokohama Museum of Art; “Ego Rock“, Fluc, Vienna;
“Sector No Limits“ ,Galerie 5020, Salzburg; “Es ist schwer, das Reale zu berühren“, Kunstverein München;
“Drinnen ist's anders“, Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Wien; “Is this city a distant planet?”, Knoll Galerie,
Budapest; “Contact Zone“, Galerija Miroslav Kraljevic, Zagreb. Foamywater is Rink’s first UK solo show.