In de duinen [In the Dunes], 2025.
In the Dunes is a sequence of 662 replicas of ancient postcards representing the North Sea dunes from Coxyde to Lombardsyde, Belgium. They are presented together on a monumental wall, following the logic of a mesh pattern. The spectator might imagine the North Sea beach to be situated just above the first horizontal line of postcards. Thus, the visitor embarks on an imaginary walk from Coxyde via Oostduinkerke and Nieuwpoort to Lombardsyde. As the view unfolds from left to right in the form of a potential survey map of the area, one may discover what this part of the Belgian coastline looked like between the beginning of the twentieth century and the early 1960s. What is more, while you travel back in time with these replicas, a range of small messages unfolds, sent by persons from a previous era. Mostly, these sweet messages have to do with people longing to see someone again soon or who are awaiting each other.
In the Dunes has been installed for the first time in the ambulatory corridor at KEI (Coxyde) in the Summer of 2025, in the vicinity of the doctors’ consultation rooms and in facing the ambulances’ entrance. From time to time the flashlights of these medical transport vehicles, parked just in front of the work behind the sliding doors, lit up the installation – as if they had become part of it, or wanted to send a warning sign.
The originals of all these postcards are part of the collection of the artist. These double-sided replicas have been printed quadri on Old Mill premium white paper, 300 gr. Dimensions of the complete work of art when presented on a wall: 1,57 x 6,22 m. Dimensions per postcard: 9,8 x 14,9 cm.
De weerlozen [The Defenseless], 2025.
The Defenseless is a diptych of photograms created in the Spring of 2025 on the beach in front of KEI (Oostduinkerke) - a rehabilitation clinic, which hosted a solo presentation of my artworks in the Summer of 2025. A sheet of handmade Japanese Tatou paper was rendered light-sensitive by means of a home-made emulsion. Subsequently, I positioned it outdoors on the flat, hard sand near the North Sea’s waterline. Then, I decorated this paper with freshly cut sea rocket growing in the wild nearby, while exposing the whole to natural sunlight. The print was washed extensively in the workshop at KEI and, ultimately, dried in an especially installed darkroom inside of the clinic.
Both works are mounted in frames of whitened maple wood. Prints: 33,6 x 47,4 cm each. Framed dimensions: 46,6 x 60,2 cm each.
En attendant, 2024-2025.
For this work, I took a photograph at low tide on the North Sea beach at the height of WN Waldersee in Oostduinkerke (Coxyde). The view within the image is oriented towards the sea horizon, from a worm’s eye perspective. Upon closer inspection, a weird element figures in the foreground: a paw print from a strange, unidentifiable animal. From afar, two sailing vessels coming from the direction of England are heading towards Nieuwpoort’s jetty. In the middle of the picture, one may observe a small bush of sea rocket, emerging near the flood line as a pregnant belly. This photograph was turned into a sequence of 16 identical blueprints, of which 14 have been toned with homemade plant emulsions. They were washed in the darkroom with rainwater until the persistent drought of Spring 2025 in Brussels, Belgium rendered this impossible (from that time on I used tap water for washing).
Paper: BERGGER Cot 320. Frames: maple, painted white. Prints: 27 x 36 cm. Framed dimensions: 31 x 40,5 cm.
Hilde Van Gelder, En attendant (1), 15 December 2024, cyanotype on BERGGER Cot 320 paper, 27 x 36 cm. Washed with tap water. Part of En attendant , 2024−2025, a sequence of 16 identical blueprints, of which 14 have been toned with homemade plant emulsions.
Hilde Van Gelder, En attendant (6), 15 December 2024, cyanotype on BERGGER Cot 320 paper, 27 x 36 cm. Toned with rosemary emulsion, and washed with rainwater (“ice water”, from snow in the garden), 15 February 2025. Part of En attendant , 2024−2025, a sequence of 16 identical blueprints, of which 14 have been toned with homemade plant emulsions.
Untitled (debris), 2025
These are two sculptural compositions with debris gleaned on the beach in front of KEI, a rehabilitation clinic in Coxyde, Belgium.
De villa van dokter Billa [The Villa of Doctor Billa], 2025.
This is a digitalised super 8 film, created by Lucas Van Gelder and Marie-Elisabeth Kestelyn in the garden of and nearby a dune house in Nieuwpoort during the summer of 1971. This work has been kept to its original length, 29 min. 38 sec. The original filmstrip is preserved in the archive of the artist.
Hilde Van Gelder, De villa van dokter Billa [The Villa of Doctor Billa], 2025. Super 8 film, digital version, as exhibited at KEI, Coxyde (2025). Photos by Dirk Pauwels © Hilde Van Gelder
Hilde Van Gelder, De villa van dokter Billa [The Villa of Doctor Billa], 2025. Super 8 film, digital version, as exhibited at KEI, Coxyde (2025). Photos by Dirk Pauwels © Hilde Van Gelder
In de duinen [In the Dunes] (1966-1998), 2025.
81 duplicates of original slides from the artist’s family archive, all taken in or nearby the dune house in Nieuwpoort, and selected and sequenced by the artist. Photographers: Luc Weytjens, Paul Kestelyn, Marie Kestelyn, Annie Kestelyn. The last image of the sequence is found footage and was made by an unknown photographer.
This work has both been exhibited as an analog sequence in a slide projector and in a digital version.
Famous Angels Never, 2024-2025
This work is a sequence of four photograms exposed and developed at the Kromme Hoek in Nieuwpoort, Belgium. The blueprints were produced by placing wildflowers - gleaned in the area (mostly in roadsides) - on hand-cut pieces of Arches Platine paper. Each sheet has been mounted on Moorman white paper 1200gr. Nr. 2 I have additionally toned with an emulsion of sea rocket (Cakile maritima). These plants I gathered on the beach right in front of the former Atlantikwall bunker WN Waldersee, witnessing WWII war crimes.
The prints are framed in oak, painted in transparent middle gray. Prints: 58 x 39 cm. Framed: 64 x 45 cm.
Hilde Van Gelder, Famous Angels Never, 2024-2025. Four cyanotypes mounted on Moorman white paper 1200gr. and framed in oak, painted in transparent middle gray. Prints: 58 x 39 cm. Framed: 64 x 45 cm. (installation views at KEI, Coxyde, 2025). Photo: by Jonas Reubens © Hilde Van Gelder
Hilde Van Gelder, Famous Angels Never, 2024-2025. Four cyanotypes mounted on Moorman white paper 1200gr. and framed in oak, painted in transparent middle gray. Prints: 58 x 39 cm. Framed: 64 x 45 cm. (installation views at KEI, Coxyde, 2025). Photo: by Jonas Reubens © Hilde Van Gelder
Hilde Van Gelder, Famous Angels Never, 2024-2025. Four cyanotypes mounted on Moorman white paper 1200gr. and framed in oak, painted in transparent middle gray. Prints: 58 x 39 cm. Framed: 64 x 45 cm. (installation views at KEI, Coxyde, 2025). Photo: by Jonas Reubens © Hilde Van Gelder
Drowning Street I, 2024
Drowning Street I is a sequence of six photograms (blueprints), which are the result of an exercise in water doodling. In May 2024, I embarked on a methodic investigation of what it would mean to create weak images while underway on a vessel sailing to the United Kingdom. The purpose was to make tangible how nearby England is, even though this country has become increasingly inaccessible to us, its overseas neighbors. Our respective coasts share the sea tides. The sea water flows in and out of the narrow passage that is the Strait of Dover in similar ranges on each shoreline. Until 1994, the UKHO released charts marking these co-tidal and co-range movements of the North Sea waters.
On May 18, 2024, we took on board what was allowed, which was not much: no dogs, no persons on the move, no harddrugs (our vessel was inspected upon arrival in Ramsgate!), … As a result, we only took handpicked wildflowers with us from the Belgian coast, and luckily these were not confiscated by the British Border Police. I gleaned a new load of flowers during a pouring rain shower in London at the very moment that then UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was announcing general elections to be held on July 4, 2024 – infamously ruining his tailored suit while doing so. Having organized a floating darkroom aboard our vessel, I created the work Drowning Street I while sailing to and from London in just one week. In retrospect, we may understand these cyanotypes as traces of the performative work of art that consisted in this wind-driven roundtrip to London in such a short amount of time.
May 20, 2024 © Photographs: Hilde Van Gelder
May 20, 2024 © Photographs: Hilde Van Gelder
P (N⎜N), 2025.
P (N⎜N) is a black-and-white photographic sequence, combining and confronting images that I took in 2024 at opposite sides of this planet: Nieuwpoort, Belgium; and Nagasaki, Japan. The title of this artwork references the mathematical formula for calculating conditional probability, P (A⎜B).
It exists in two versions. First, there is a luxe portfolio of 6 sheets, printed in offset black with recycled inks on Symbol Tatami White paper 170 gr. Each print measures 27 x 40,5 cm. They are bundled in a black folder in Reef black paper 330 gr, with a magnesium foil stamp. Open folder: 56 x 53,5 cm. Closed folder: 28 x 41,5 cm. With a signed certificate of authenticity. Edition of 10, 2 a.p. Available for purchase through De Blinkerd Editions.
The alternative version is a brochure of 8 folded loose sheets, printed on both sides recto/verso in black with recycled inks on Nautilus classic 90 gr recycled paper. Closed format: 20,25 x 27 cm; opened: 40,5 x 27 cm. It is distributed for free to visitors whenever the portfolio version of P (N⎜N)is exhibited.
Hilde Van Gelder, P (N½N) , 2025 (portfolio). Installation views at KEI, Coxyde, 2025.
Photographs: Jonas Reubens © Hilde Van Gelder
Photographs: Jonas Reubens © Hilde Van Gelder
Photographs: Jonas Reubens © Hilde Van Gelder