Hedwig Brouckaert (MFA 2005) is participating in the group exhibition offspace.xyz, a curatorial project by Maxime Van Melkebeke in NYC. offspace.xyz will run from January 15 – March 3, 2016 during a residency in artist Anouk Kruithof’s studio at 195 Chrystie Street, New York.

offspace.xyz is an online exhibition available 24/7 but Brouckaert’s work, “In the Presence of Absence,” will display January 27, February 6, February 13, February 16 and other days to be announced.

“The Presence of Absence” is “a photograph of a space tha my father just left to never physically return, his office space, an ‘empty’ space, although his presence is still strongly there. I will show this photograph in an ‘empty’ space (offspace.xyz), an office of sorts, of someone else who is not physically present at the moment. We can’t physically enter the space; we are removed from that direct experience and can only watch the photograph through the image of four cameras on a digital screen. The layering of the installation which will unfold over time, questions the experience of presence and absence, and moves in between physical, virtual and perhaps spiritual spaces too.”

Brouckaert’s work will be presented over a number days with intervals that evoke the effect of remembering. The intial photograph, “Illusive Flesh of Light,” and its placement in the space will serve as an iterative process of reflection that is present and absent at the same time.