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Toha De Brant - Ilan Weiss - Sophie Vanhomwegen
Three artists. Three approaches. One exhibition.
At its heart, photography is an act of revelation. For artists Ilan Weiss, Sophie
Vanhomwegen and Toha De Brant, it is also an act of concealment. Each devoted
to exploring the transitional space between what is shown and what is kept hid-
den. Their work challenges the very definition of photography, dissolving the
image into the textured feel of painting, the play of illusion, and the immediacy
of sensory experience. One abstracts the gaze, another fractures the body into
intimate fragments, a third seeks a primordial unity with nature.
The title, When the Veil is Thin, anchors the exhibition. It borrows from spiritual
traditions that speak of moments- at dusk or dawn, or between seasons - when
the boundary between the material and the ethereal softens, allowing passage
between worlds. This idea connects all the works, made visible through blur,
mask, and shadow. They engage directly with the paradox noted by psychoana-
lyst D.W. Winnicott: that artists are driven by the twin urges to communicate
and to conceal. Their imagery is a quest toward growth, moving from a need for
control toward a state of acceptance. Letting go becomes a method to reinvent
and transform.
The exhibition is structured around three pairings, each illuminating a different
facet of this central theme:
Sophie & Ilan explore the persona as a fragile construction. Their work traces
the masks worn for performance and for protection, examining the fine line
where a celebration of self becomes an escape from it. A palpable tension hangs
between pleasure and decay, between being seen and being lost.
Ilan & Toha pursue a dissolution of the self into the environment. Their collabo-
rative energy calls for a reconnection to primal, elemental forces—the body not
as a separate entity, but as water, earth, and organic matter.
Toha & Sophie map a topography of the sensuous and unspoken. Zooming in
on the body, they treat sensuality not as spectacle but as a private language,
giving form to deeply buried desires. Through moving image, sound, and tactile
suggestion, they create an immersive field that asks the body to remember and
the gut to speak.
When the Veil Is Thin is an invitation to lean in closer, to look beyond the surface,
and to consider what resonates in the quiet space between seeing and sensing.