RACHEL DANIËLS
Place of Residency
Ludwig Forum Aachen
Rachel Daniëls (*1998, Genk, BE) is a multidisciplinary artist working across sculpture, installation, performance, and sound. After completing her Master’s degree in Sculpture & Installation at PXL-MAD School of Arts in Hasselt in 2023, she participated in a residency at Kunstplaats VONK. She is currently based in Brussels.
Her practice appears to lead a double life, nurtured in so-called “interzones” and non- places. Yet occasionally finding their way into institutional or more conventional contexts. In those settings, the works take on an entirely different life and interaction, revealing contrasting layers of meaning and reception. Over the years, her performances and installations have been presented in a range of spaces in Belgium including : Museum M, C-mine, Horst Arts and Music Festival, Annie Gentils Gallery Whitehouse Gallery and Base-Alpha Gallery.
© Guy Kokken
Heraldic Lion
2022
construction fence, stained glass
exhibition view Wild Apples in Sint-Trudo Abdij Sint-Truiden 2023
© We document Art
Deconstructed constructions #1
2021
Screenprints on pvc curtains
78,5cmx52cm
Discipline
installation
Rachel Daniëls
Martyrdom
stained glass, polyester , glass rods
2021
A multitude of superimposed everyday objects, pictograms and other symbols from worldwide (sub)cultures intertwine in Rachel Daniel’s installations, which seem to be based on an apparent disorder that deliberately obscures our reading of her work. These heterogeneous associations sometimes display a kind of humor ,absurdity even ,but often they come across as menacing and seem to contain a latent violence. As a multidisciplinary artist, she combines techniques and sources of inspiration to construct critical mechanics that make use of a unique visual language. She examines the power structures that operate within our society and dissects feelings of desire and remorse that exist within the individual human being. Her installations are often accompanied by coexisting soundscapes that act as emulsifiers that provoke a dialogue between different elements within the installations. Its main materials are steel, construction fences and stained glass, pronounced materials that contain and exhibit a compelling force. They reference social control, religion, capitalism, and the tension between collectivity and individualism, while exploring the friction between nd industrialcraftsmanship a production.
Project during the Borderland Residency
Year of participation
2025
At Ludwig Forum Aachen, Rachel Daniëls plans to prototype larger-scale installations and investigate how materials such as rubber mediate between notions of containment and passage, solidity and fragility. Experimenting with rubber both as a material and as a metaphor. Its elasticity symbolizes resilience and adaptability, stretching and bending under pressure, yet always attempting to return to its original form. This flexibility mirrors the dynamic and shifting nature of borders and identities within the EuRegion, where social and cultural boundaries are continually redefined. At the same time, rubber’s industrial origins evoke themes of human craftsmanship, labor, and innovation, highlighting a tension between natural pliability and constructed structure.
Instagram
@rcaleh
RACHEL DANIËLS
Place of Residency
Ludwig Forum Aachen
Rachel Daniëls (*1998, Genk, BE) is a multidisciplinary artist working across sculpture, installation, performance, and sound. After completing her Master’s degree in Sculpture & Installation at PXL-MAD School of Arts in Hasselt in 2023, she participated in a residency at Kunstplaats VONK. She is currently based in Brussels.
Her practice appears to lead a double life, nurtured in so-called “interzones” and non- places. Yet occasionally finding their way into institutional or more conventional contexts. In those settings, the works take on an entirely different life and interaction, revealing contrasting layers of meaning and reception. Over the years, her performances and installations have been presented in a range of spaces in Belgium including : Museum M, C-mine, Horst Arts and Music Festival, Annie Gentils Gallery Whitehouse Gallery and Base-Alpha Gallery.
Discipline
installation
Rachel Daniëls
Martyrdom
stained glass, polyester , glass rods
2021
A multitude of superimposed everyday objects, pictograms and other symbols from worldwide (sub)cultures intertwine in Rachel Daniel’s installations, which seem to be based on an apparent disorder that deliberately obscures our reading of her work. These heterogeneous associations sometimes display a kind of humor ,absurdity even ,but often they come across as menacing and seem to contain a latent violence. As a multidisciplinary artist, she combines techniques and sources of inspiration to construct critical mechanics that make use of a unique visual language. She examines the power structures that operate within our society and dissects feelings of desire and remorse that exist within the individual human being. Her installations are often accompanied by coexisting soundscapes that act as emulsifiers that provoke a dialogue between different elements within the installations. Its main materials are steel, construction fences and stained glass, pronounced materials that contain and exhibit a compelling force. They reference social control, religion, capitalism, and the tension between collectivity and individualism, while exploring the friction between nd industrialcraftsmanship a production.
Project during the Borderland Residency
Year of participation
2025
At Ludwig Forum Aachen, Rachel Daniëls plans to prototype larger-scale installations and investigate how materials such as rubber mediate between notions of containment and passage, solidity and fragility. Experimenting with rubber both as a material and as a metaphor. Its elasticity symbolizes resilience and adaptability, stretching and bending under pressure, yet always attempting to return to its original form. This flexibility mirrors the dynamic and shifting nature of borders and identities within the EuRegion, where social and cultural boundaries are continually redefined. At the same time, rubber’s industrial origins evoke themes of human craftsmanship, labor, and innovation, highlighting a tension between natural pliability and constructed structure.
Instagram
@rcaleh