Suspended Temporality

Abstract

The exhibition presented here by Catriona Leahy and Katsutoshi Yuasa, at the C-Mine Culturcentrum in Genk, Belgium, set out to explore the lasting impact of the recent industrial past, and the legacy the mining heritage had and continues to have on Genk’s landscape. What remains of this industrial heartland provided a contextual backdrop for the work. The works echo with resonances from the dilapidated, fragmented site, but rather than focussing on the architectural grandeur of these majestic and ruined mining shafts, Catriona’s attention is directed to the landscape, which shows an altogether different manifestation of the effects this mining industry had over time. In a sense, a latent image, that might constitute a rupture in the fabric of the present. Catriona and Katsutoshi have a background in the graphic arts and have a keen interest in the remains of cultural phenomena that have since lost their place in contemporary society. These can be both visual relics such as buildings whose function has been made redundant, but also old traditions that are slowly disappearing. Both artists spent several months in Genk drawing parallels between the situation in Genk and respectively Ireland and Japan