Soft Reset 

Hanne Peeraer

15th of January - 15th of March

Soft celestial forms with spiked edges hang from the ceiling. Darts of colour slipping through them, as they gently twist, viewers are invited to sit and look up to watch the works drift above.
Grounded in the artists’ own experience of everyday life and  a research into neuroaesthetics,  focusing on the  illusory nature of perception, Peeraer seeks out nuance. Rather than there being a divided and cold hard line between ‘before’ and ‘after’ in our lives, the artist’s work deciphers rather how we may hold memory to interpret and anticipate a future made increasingly intimidating by notions of artificial intelligence and interplanetary life.

The titular reference nods too to the pervasive presence of technology, suggesting that computation is not cold circuitry but nature's own method. Peeraer sees life itself as an ongoing process of pattern-recognition and subtle adaptation. Symmetries and paired forms throughout the exhibition trace these recurring patterns—cellular architectures, cosmic arrangements, neural pathways, abstract reasoning. In weaving these together, the work seeks to reconcile seemingly disparate realms of biology, philosophy, prayer, and embodied experience.

The central mobile Baby Universe aims to embody the hypnagogic space between waking and sleeping; when consciousness softens and something else seeps in with gentle ease. Rather than making grand proclamations about our future, the piece creates a protective bubble for wonder, like a drift that feels both vast and somehow safe. The mobile is blended seamlessly by the artists’ experience of the self alongside her academic investigation, with each individual piece bearing the initials of loved ones who have impacted Peeraer’s life. Further, the 3D printed heads attaching the sections symbolise the self, in exploration of the individual human in a collective context.

Flanking it, two paintings embody the grounding force of two personal relationships that have anchored the artists’ lived experience throughout her research. Their titles are named after the artist’ father and best friend, both of whom passed away at a very young age. They become intimate, abstract portraits of human scale that serve as counterpoints to this human collective reaching to the future.

'Soft Reset' asks how we may reconcile what we are forced to feel in these expanding horizons, and what we can measure and name. Among these larger questions and ruminations on life philosophies, we return to softness, and to the importance of holding space for our human scale and needs.

“Our readiness for tomorrow lives not only in technological hardness but in our capacity for gentle attention, for expanding our self-understanding while maintaining our essential tenderness.” Hanne Peeraer