Shards of Time
2025, Engraved steel plates, glass, nuts and bolts, steel clips, shells,stones, pipes,nails, mudlarked from the Thames river at night.
4 sizes of panels: 55 x 30 cm, 55 x 55 cm, 55 x 90 cm, 55 x 120 cm
4 sizes of panels: 55 x 30 cm, 55 x 55 cm, 55 x 90 cm, 55 x 120 cm
Exhibition:
Marché Ouvert
PSLab Bermondsey
26.06.2025-11.07.2025
Marché Ouvert
PSLab Bermondsey
26.06.2025-11.07.2025
Marché Ouvert is a group exhibition by Nele Bergmans, Holly Hooper and Monya Riachi. The exhibition brings together the three artists’ sculptural practices in conversation with light, the landscaped interiors of the studio, and Bermondsey’s historical context. The space was previously one of London’s oldest Victorian tanneries, located a stone’s throw from Bermondsey’s antiques market, which operated as an ‘open market’ until the practice was made illegal. The building continues to hold and reflect traces of its historical past, and it is from this context that each of the artists responded, with new site-specific and contextual artworks developed specifically for this show.
The exhibition was accompanied by a beautiful text by Hadeel Eltayeb, which you can find here. List of works and exhibition documentation can be found here.
Nele’s new work ‘Shards of Time’ is inspired by the history of the building as a tannery. Drawing on the process of toggling—an old leather-drying technique where animal hides were stretched and clipped onto perforated steel plates—the piece evokes the memory of materials once suspended to breathe and transform. Here, glass replaces skin, pinned yet floating over steel, allowing light and air to pass through.The coloured glass is reminiscent of the sunset’s reflection on the nearby Shard: a symbol of today’s contemporary urban landscape and economy. Underneath the glass flows the current of the Thames, carrying rocks, shells, nails, pipes and pieces of brick. As mudlarking is illegal without a permit, these pieces were collected at night before sunrise, engaging with the theme of ‘Marché Ouvert’ and lights as something that exposes and hides. Suspended from racks within the space, this site-specific piece quietly echoes the past while engaging with the present.
The exhibition was accompanied by a beautiful text by Hadeel Eltayeb, which you can find here. List of works and exhibition documentation can be found here.
Nele’s new work ‘Shards of Time’ is inspired by the history of the building as a tannery. Drawing on the process of toggling—an old leather-drying technique where animal hides were stretched and clipped onto perforated steel plates—the piece evokes the memory of materials once suspended to breathe and transform. Here, glass replaces skin, pinned yet floating over steel, allowing light and air to pass through.The coloured glass is reminiscent of the sunset’s reflection on the nearby Shard: a symbol of today’s contemporary urban landscape and economy. Underneath the glass flows the current of the Thames, carrying rocks, shells, nails, pipes and pieces of brick. As mudlarking is illegal without a permit, these pieces were collected at night before sunrise, engaging with the theme of ‘Marché Ouvert’ and lights as something that exposes and hides. Suspended from racks within the space, this site-specific piece quietly echoes the past while engaging with the present.