Hybridicon

Hybridicon in the Silo Gallery 1996

The word ‘Hybridicon’suggests a collection: Elements which share certain specific characteristics.

But ‘Hybridicon’ is more than that. The presented elements have more than just a formal connection. They have a relationship.

‘Hybridicon’ is conceived as a self-contained universe. The elements relate to each other like words in a poem. They refer to each other like scenes in a motion picture. And, like a poem, they inevitably refer to an ‘outside world’, albeit obliquely as if through a series of prisms and trick mirrors.

The forms of expression we call ‘art’ are forms of (often failing) communication. Martin Helms work consists of studying and experimenting with the nature of these modes of communication. A creation – painting, sculpture, installation, film, whatever – is the formal bearer of semantics. A sort of vehicle for non-verbal meaning, a shopping bag filled with symbolism.

‘Hybridicon’ makes use of symbols, associations and archetypes. It also uses gestures, concepts, techniques and materials.

Creating ‘Hybridicon’ involved the making of a great number of painstaking choices to preserve the purity of the internal semantics. It makes a huge difference if real gold leaf is used instead of gold paint, for example, or if something is crafted by hand or manufactured by machines. It makes a difference if a surface is worked or left untouched. It even makes a difference when something is made.

In the Silo gallery in Amsterdam Martin Helm presented a ‘Hybridicon’ consisting of five elements in a specific space and configuration. But ‘Hybridicon’ is growing. It has its own momentum.

In ‘Hybridicon Laboratory’ he has examined some of the consequences.

Apart from the industrial machine parts that are a permanent fixture to the Silo-gallery, ‘Hybridicon’ consists of:

(click on thumbnail image for information)