The multiple of layers in Kim Boske’s (1978 b., Hilversum, The Netherlands) photographic images seem to be holding, one layer upon the other, merging and intertwining, simultaneously different moments in time. Forming one harmonious image in its entirety, these images of the ‘now’, composed of different visual fragments lost during passing of time, reveal a phenomenon that is impossible to see or witness with the naked eye.

Fascinated by how different moments in time and space determine our perspective and define reality, Boske focuses in her work on the system of ‘Time’. She regards it as a structure that is made up of smaller, differentiated structures, in which she sees the ‘now’ as an intricate assembly of several related influences of past and present; reality as an unlimited field of differentials, which move disorderly alongside each other and together form the unity of being.

For Boske it makes sense that ‘Nature’ takes up a dominant place in her visual language. Nature continues in ‘time’; nature is process, it changes and is in motion, it blooms grows and dies like humans. She passes, but also comes back; she is entwined with all there is.

Boske navigates through the system of time to study the way we look at it. During her artist in residence at KAIR, 2018/19 she started working on her unique impressions from the waterfall Amagoi no taki, a tangled and dreamlike study of streams of water that channels the mental capacity to exhilarate. These ‘liquid narratives’ are printed on handmade washi paper that she dyed in natural indigo at the Awagami factory in Kamiyama. The production of washi paper as well as the delicate dying indigo technique are both fading crafts in Japan. Indigo leaves are stirred and sprinkled with water for four months and then enter a delicate brewing process in a vat. This animism results in the serene quality of the indigo: a specific depth of colour, rich range of blues and an everdiverse gradient outcome. Working with these living organisms is an integral part of Boske’s practice, showing how the physical movement through time and space changes our perspective on the world.

Kim Boske’s new series, “Fugitive Colours”, is composed by monochromes created with natural pigments made by Boske in Indonesia. After her return to Amsterdam, she continued to apply the Indonesian dye pigments onto her collages of photographs priorly taken during her walks in Icelandic nature. By collaging multiple photos and pigments in one image, Boske tries to portray the complex and multifaceted aspects of her experiences of nature, and its transience. With the use of natural materials and techniques, this series’ artworks are always unique, as they encompass traces of the dying processes and present a unique pigmentation that depends on the maturation of the dyes. Applied on photographs, these “living” pigments challenge our perception of the photographic medium as a fixed snapshot of time.

“Fugitive Colours” is a reminder of the interconnectedness of nature: the impact of our actions in one ecosystem is streamed into another. Rather than attempting to control nature, we can learn to cultivate symbiotic relations with it, and let it change the ways in which we perceive the interconnectedness of different spaces and times. “Fugitive Colours”, will be presented for the first time by FLAT // LAND at MIA Photo Fair (10-14 April, Milan).

Kim Boske graduated at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague in 2005. She has received several grants from the Mondriaan Fund and the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts (AFK). Her work has been shown at international museums including Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam; Fotomuseum Winterthur (Switzerland); Museum Moscow House of Photography, Moscow; Shanghai Himalayas Museum, China; Nizhny Novgrorod State Art Museum, Nizhny Novgrorod , Russia; Galerie LUMC, Leiden; Museum Hilversum, the Netherlands; Hyères fashion and photography festival at the Villa Noailles; the Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam; Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, Beijing and the Singapore International Photography Festival. In 2021 she was invited to the group exhibition ‘La Photographie à l’Epau’ in Le Mans, with artists Sandra Mehl and pioneer of journalistic photography Robert Doisneau, among others. In the same year she participated in Garden of Delight, a group exhibition commissioned by the Netherlands Embassy in Budapest and curated by Claudia Küssel. Her work was also selected the same year by Jenny Smets for a show exploring a dialogue between ceramics and photography at Usine Kugler, Geneva, Switzerland from 6 – 17 October 2021. Other participating artists are Ruth van Beek, Marit Tingleff, Richard Meitner, Isabelle Wenzel, Gijs Assmann, Elspeth Diederix, Virginia Leonard, Paul Kooiker and Anne Marie Laureys. In 2022 a solo presentation (Mimesis) was held in the Botanical Gardens in Rouen in the Pavillon du Jardin des Plantes and her solo show ‘内と外 ( Insight Outsight)’ was shown at the Kamiyama Theater in Japan. In 2023 she has been invited to showcase her new recollections from Japan at De Utrecht, in Leeuwarden. Accompanying the exhibition is a new catalogue ‘Aizome’ that includes her latests works and films and an introduction written by art critic and writer Lucette ter Borg. ‘Aizome’ can be seen from 27 Januari – 17 juni, 2023.

Among collections that include her work are those of the Nederlands Fotomuseum, AMC Collection, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Hague, the Netherlands Embassy in Washington, D.C. and the Weisz collection, Amsterdam. In 2010 her work was selected for the Talent issue of Foam Magazine. In 2011 she was finalist at the Hyères Photography Festival in France. In 2012 she published her book Mapping. In 2021 she was selected for the ‘Covid’ special issue cover of newspaper HET PAROOL.

Kim Boske works and lives in Amsterdam.

Project grant Artist 2018

Stipendium for Established Artists. Mondriaan Fund, 2014
Standard working budget, Mondriaan Fonds, 2013
Shortlist: Hyères International Photography competition – Hyères, France 2011
Flexible contribution working budget, Fonds BKVB, 2010
Production grant, Fonds BKVB, February 2009
Selected: Fotomuseum Winterthur, Plat(t)form 09 – Winterthur, CH
Project grant, AFK, 2008
Startstipendium Fonds BKVB, September 2007
Startstipendium Fonds BKVB, May 2006
Nomination Steenbergen Stipendium 2005
Nomination essay prize Royal Academy of Art 2005
Nomination Paul huf junior award 2003