Billytown

The exhibition Fiberglass Eels brings together a selection of recent works by Sam Hersbach.
The show presents a body of work in which deep-sea submarine communication cables recur alongside floral elements, human and non-human fantastical figures, drones, both those acquired by the Dutch government and consumer drones, historical references, including Architects from Den Haag and Cornelia Scheffer-Lamme, and spaces related to the cultural field, such as meeting rooms and, in particular, artist-run organization Billytown, studios and De Helena. These elements appear next to microbes, systems of measurement and scale, submarines colliding beneath the surface, restless catfish.
The paintings are partly made using both self-made and store-bought pigments. Hersbach works with the emotional and associative qualities of pigment, often derived from flowers that are given, found, or collected from overlooked environments, such as weeds growing between pavement tiles or store-bought plants like marram grass that help protect the dunes and land from rising sea levels.

The pigment creates a space for emotion and interest embedded into the material itself. The stories and affection start at a material base. These works are created within the layers of pigment alongside conventional acrylics, gouaches, and industrial materials such as steel plates. Plates cold and sterile or rusty and aged.

The newly created works embed photographic material, contributing to a study of layered realities (photographic, painterly, fantasy, quoted). Including images of people entering rough seas, sharks biting into deep-sea submarine communication cables, and fibre-optic lines emerging near residental buildings like wild-growing plants.
This exhibition also presents a series of sculptures. Pieces embedding plants, stained glass, and drawings. Embracing a physical element in which the plants can grow alongside their pigment-turned counterparts who have been embedded into an image frozen into painting.