A Matter of Time
Miriam Baans
18.05 - 07.07.2024
A Matter of Time presents the work of Miriam Baans, exploring the boundaries between consciousness, memory, and the unseen. The exhibition approaches the afterlife not as a concrete reality, but as a mental and sensory space shaped by imagination, reflection, and the human desire to understand what lies beyond life.
Fotogram 02, 2018
© Miriam Baans
In a world increasingly dominated by documentation and certainty, Miriam Baans is fascinated by what cannot be seen directly. Her work seeks to evoke experiences of the intangible without a camera, forming impressions of moments and phenomena that exist somewhere between perception and imagination.
The series A Matter of Time emerged from Miriam Baans’ fascination with altered states of consciousness and the possibility of an afterlife. She expanded her exploration of the untouchable by speaking with people who had undergone near-death experiences. Despite common patterns in these accounts, translating such experiences into visual imagery proved impossible through conventional photography.
“Some day we will find
what we are looking for.
Or maybe not.
Maybe we will find something
much greater than that.”
Fotogram 44, 2021
© Miriam Baans
Miriam Baans therefore turned to alternative methods, using photogram and luminogram processes to create images directly on light-sensitive paper. By manually exposing vintage photographic paper, often without the use of a camera, she embraced unpredictability, allowing light, shadow, and material interaction to shape the final work.
Through these abstract images, she invites viewers on a journey toward the unknown. The works resist fixation, offering landscapes of the mind rather than the physical world—spaces where time dissolves and presence becomes a question rather than a certainty. The exhibition presents these new works as an exploration of human curiosity and wonder, revealing the possibilities of perception beyond the tangible, and the enduring mystery of what might lie beyond life as we know it.
◼︎ Exhibition views
◼︎ Credits
Curated by Marlike Marks
Miriam Baans
Cover image © Miriam Baans