zaaltekst Klaudija Ylaite
ENG
BLOCK C — Lily Dollner The Artist as Consumer of Extreme Discomfort
Matter matters, but only in the three-dimensional reality. How, then, does the matter appear on other planes?
Can we transfer matter to a four-dimensional space? This is what Lily Dollner, with her devotion to discomforting (non)utility, has translated into a visual representation. A possibility of catching a glimpse into higher-dimensional planes—which, although inherently invisible to the human eye, can be alluded to.
Four Dimensional Self-Portrait II is a sculpture of 216 identical cubes made of plaster mixed with 60 milliliters of Dollner’s blood, arranged in the cubical order of 6 × 6 × 6. Inside each cube, a plaster replica of a human heel bone resides.
Next to this cubical form, Four Dimensional Self-Portrait I, a register/documentation of Dollner’s non-spatial four-dimensional proprioception, which shows a private chronicle of felt-pain. The pain appears to be a paradox; while Dollner performs an unspectacular, strictly three-dimensional act—that of cutting her hair—she cries as though a surgical amputation were takingplace. By showing this disproportion, Dollner blends the mental with the matter, connecting three-dimensional mechanical input to the four-dimensionally distributed physiological output.
Together, the two self-portraits sum up The Artist as Consumer of Extreme Discomfort as a mental device that places a grid over our three-dimensional understanding of reality. For Dollner, this is a continuation of what Bas Jan Ader was occupied with in his shortyet impactful oeuvre. The bridge between physical and ethereal, standing on the fringes of the totality of the material plane and the non-duality of matter’s parallel existence. Think of Ader’s
I’m Too Sad To Tell You, we will never know the explanation of his pain.
However, Dollner asks whether the disappearance or extreme subjective states of Bas Jan Ader might be more than narrative absence(s) in his work. Was Ader, all along, searching for higher planes; the miraculousness of something ungraspable in a three-dimensional perception, seeking to represent that which is unrepresentable? These questions stand as a compass in the work of Dollner. While Ader was preoccupied with forces that exceed his agency—gravity, the ocean, and emotionally fueled mental states—Dollner follows a strictly material register of the self against four-dimensional space.
While visiting Dollner in her studio space that momentarily was turned into a plaster bone factory, I was intrigued to understand why both essential materials of the sculpture—cubes and bones—must be of the same material. This is where Dollner introduced me to a modern theory of the fourth dimension.
On one of the walls of Dollner’s studio hangs a sketch of a cube. This cube is drawn following Charles Howard Hinton’s (1853–1907) theory. Hinton was the mathematician who formalized and popularized the concept of the fourth dimension by drawing a cubical system as a way to make this abstract concept easier to imagine.
In my encounter with Dollner, the bridge that makes four-dimensional thinking tangible in her work is the fusion between geometric form and the inquiry into the self. The four-dimensional plane is not only a mathematical idea—it can also be understood spiritually. Attentiveness to inner states, perception of subtle forces, and awareness that reality extends beyond what is visible are all ways to approach these higher dimensions. Pyotr Demyanovich Ouspensky (1878–1947), philosopher and esotericist, in his book In Search of the Miraculous (1945), introduced what is now known as the Fourth Way, a disciplined system aimed at accessing expanded states of phenomenal experiences. This phenomenal experience, according to Ouspensky, is something that can be reached through persistent and rigorous training of the self.
It is precisely this synthesis of geometric rigor and spiritual inquiry that Dollner translates into her own practice. Dollner attempts tomake explicit what was implicit by aiming to materialize the four-dimensional inquiries. The cubes’ stored bodily residue and the film register stand as a procedural exploration of possibilities to visualize a four-dimensional perception.
Four Dimensional Self-Portrait I (film) and Four Dimensional Self-Portrait II (sculpture) together form an inquiry into the material self, exposing how the self, as we know it, is not wholly contained within the three-dimensional plane. Extracting the materials from the body—blood and the cut of hair—Dollner ruptures known representational logics with a reverent attention to experience that extends beyond three-dimensional perception.
In this way, Dollner thus continues the search of the miraculous; The Artist as Consumer of Extreme Discomfort is turned into amethod for testing in what ways the self, through matter and memory, already reaches into four-dimensional planes. For this, every weekend until the exhibition runs, Dollner will excavate plaster bones out of plaster cubes, segregating matter
from matter. A durational labor for the sake of undoing the unholy matrimony; only to, perhaps, prove that the four-dimensional plane is still beyond our three-dimensional perception.
Lily Dollner (IE/UK, 2000) is a visual artist who deliberately frames her practice as ‘unproductiveness’: she uses strict procedural rules to produce functionless, impracticable works that parody utility and productivity. Through applied nonsense and intentional inconvenience, she probes ideological and embodied phenomena by generating dense, repeatable data in which the conventional meaning is suspended.
Special thanks to Bindert, Marijke, Klaudija, Marijn, Roxie, Cecilia, Jackie, Linn, Adrija, and Marinus for all their sculptural help.
NL
BLOCK C — Lily Dollner
The Artist as Consumer of Extreme Discomfort
Materie doet ertoe, maar alleen in onze driedimensionale werkelijkheid. Hoe zou materie zich gedragen op een hoger vlak? Kan het bestaan in een vierdimensionale ruimte? Lily Dollner onderzoekt dit door sculpturen en performatieve handelingen die ongemak en onpraktische materialen combineren, en zo een glimp van hogere dimensies mogelijk maken.
Four Dimensional Self-Portrait II bestaat uit 216 identieke gipskubussen, gemengd met 60 ml van Dollners bloed, gerangschikt ineen 6 × 6 × 6 raster. In elke kubus bevindt zich een gipsen replica van een hielbeen. Four Dimensional Self-Portrait I documenteert Dollners niet-ruimtelijke, vierdimensionale proprioceptie en registreert gevoelde pijn. Tijdens een ogenschijnlijk eenvoudige handeling—haar haar knippen—klinkt haar cry zoals bij een chirurgische amputatie. Zo verbindt Dollner mentaleervaring met materiële handeling, en laat ze zien hoe drie-dimensionale acties een vierdimensionaal effect kunnen hebben.
De werken samen vormen een mnemotechnisch systeem dat onze driedimensionale perceptie bevraagt. Dollner zet hiermee het werk van Bas Jan Ader voort, die in I’m Too Sad To Tell You de grenzen van het fysieke en het emotionele onderzocht. Waar Ader zich richtte op krachten als zwaartekracht en de oceaan, registreert Dollner het zelf binnen vierdimensionale ruimte met expliciet materiaal: kubussen, lichaamsresten en film.
In haar studio, tijdelijk een “gipsen bottenfabriek”, liet Dollner zien waarom kubussen en botten van hetzelfde materiaal zijn: het verbindt geometrie met het zelf. Aan de muur hangt een kubusschets gebaseerd op Charles Howard Hinton (1853–1907), die de vierde dimensie visualiseerde via kubussen. Het vierdimensionale vlak kan ook spiritueel worden begrepen: door aandacht, waarneming van subtiele krachten en bewustzijn dat werkelijkheid verder gaat dan wat we zien. Pyotr Demyanovich Ouspensky (1878–1947) gebruikte dit in In Search of the Miraculous (1945) als basis voor de “Fourth Way”, een systeem om uitgebreide fenomenale ervaring te bereiken door oefening van zelfobservatie en -discipline.
Dollner vertaalt deze combinatie van geometrische precisie en spirituele reflectie naar haar eigen praktijk. Door volharding maakt ze impliciete vierdimensionale concepten expliciet. Kubussen, lichaamsresten en filmregistraties vormen een procedurele verkenning van hoe een vierdimensionale perceptie ervaren kan worden.
Four Dimensional Self-Portrait I (film) en Four Dimensional Self-Portrait II (sculptuur) onderzoeken samen het materiële zelf. Bloed en haar dienen als autobiografische residuen, niet als verhaalvertelling. Dollner test hoe het zelf via materie en herinnering al doordringt tot vierdimensionale vlakken. Tot aan de tentoonstelling zal ze wekelijks gipsen botten uit de kubussen delven, een langdurige arbeid die laat zien dat het vierdimensionale vlak nog steeds buiten onze driedimensionale perceptie ligt.
Lily Dollner (IE/UK, 2000) is een beeldend kunstenaar die haar praktijk bewust kadert als “onproductief”: ze gebruikt strikte procedures om functie- en onpraktische werken te creëren die productiviteit en nut parodiëren. Door opzettelijk ongemak en herhaling genereert ze complexe data waarin conventionele betekenis tijdelijk wordt opgeheven.
Speciale dank aan Bindert, Marijke, Klaudija, Marijn, Roxie, Cecilia, Jackie, Linn, Adrija en Marinus voor hun sculpturale hulp..
(Deze tekst werd vertaald met behulp van ChatGPT.)
