‘I myself do not belong to any particular family, school or direction. My sculpture keeps growing, from an exploration of myself, interacting with what exists around me.
The art movements of the last few decades in Western culture are very polarised. The avant-garde or ‘contemporary art’, follows the path of the idea, the human brain. On the other hand, we have the traditional direction, by which then in plastic art all figurative expressions are meant. Partly because of my philosophical education, my work is the result of personal views. We live in an era where the harmony of Mother Earth is strongly threatened. I consider it my duty to use my artistic talent in function of this. As a member of leadership culture, art is not a morally non-committal ‘plaything’ for me. Creativity is a basic ability of every human being. Within 500 years, the earth will look the way we all will have shaped it. Artists employ this ability as an end in itself, where others usually use it as a function of their main activities on the more subconscious plane. For me, however, it is also inextricably intertwined with others such as love, admiration, conscience, beauty.’
Lucas Van Haegenborgh
'Drawing' in skeleton and structure
The period before his first truly figurative sculpture ‘Dying Cow’ (1988), Lucas had been preparing for it for quite a few years, more unconsciously than consciously: observing and interiorising, dabbling a bit with figurines in clay from the age of 15, never drawing with pen or pencil, and in the 1970s mainly learning techniques, knowledge of materials, practising all kinds of stiles during and after his studies.
‘Only one thing I knew for sure: that all this was not lost time and would one day culminate in a final destination.’
In the second half of the 1970s, his activities focused more on the artistic with a course in smithing with Herman D’Haese (Art Academy Anderlecht) and then modelling with Roland Monteyne. From 1980, he continued modelling in Ghent with Bert Coolens. Again, no sketching or drawing.
The 1980s were mainly coloured by large structures, with the common thread of the immediate externalisation into the three-dimensional: models.
Again and again, a process of becoming spins off around a theme purely conceptually: ‘I don’t really know the duration of the simmering, but suddenly, usually in the morning, there is the perception of it in a vague visual flash. The next step is then to make the model.’
For his first animal sculpture (commissioned by friend Verbraeken), the ‘Dying Cow’, he started from photographs to be immediately executed in steel after interiorisation.
This is how every process of becoming has been since then: photographs, a lot of reading in books and on the internet, and a private moment of movement that expresses as closely as possible the essence of the creature. ‘That identification is crucial, my soul fusing with the essence of my model. A purely cerebral process. No miniatures, no sketches, but during the execution in regularly take the pose I am portraying, mammals among themselves…. ’
Double skeleton
The construction of both large and small sculptures starts with the essentials: ‘drawing’ the central skeleton with one rod, a purely geometric drawing by feel. Then he adds volume to that first line, more and more until there is harmony in the composition. The sculptures are sometimes minimal, otherwise they are more complex with a double sculpture: the inner sculpture is an abstract approach to the skeleton, the outer sculpture a figurative approach to muscles and fur.
‘Indeed the skeleton in its diversity is essential in my doing and thinking. On the one hand as the ontological core in my philosophical exploration. On the other as the physical core of the construction of my sculptures. This double skeleton is the common thread. These two forms of it go hand and hand, often merging or each going its own way. My field of study is not taught anywhere in the world, there are no professors for it either. But it was propelled by a great love for human beings and grief for the daily horror.’
Lucas’ studies actually started in his youth during the holidays as an assistant veterinarian, and from “Stervende Koe” he continued his anatomical training himself, for example with Professor Simons at the skeleton museum of the veterinary school in Merelbeke.
In the early days, he still worked from ‘models’. For the cow, he studied everything in books and for ‘Albion’ he borrowed a skeleton of a famous racehorse. Because for Lucas the essence of his subject can only be purely rendered, he goes deep and only after thorough mastery of the subject, he allows variation and abstraction.
Later, the rendering of the skeleton became increasingly abstract and he also no longer borrowed skeletons. Its abstraction in the bison is even a depiction of Buddhist ‘kundalini awakening’, an image within an image. Even the skeleton of the Camel is a sculpture in its own right should you dismantle it. And so on, until the great iron tiger follows.
Materials
“During my years at the academy in Anderlecht and Ghent, I worked exclusively with clay.
Honestly, it wasn’t my thing.”
Iron
‘When working directly in metal, for me that is head and shoulders iron, my very favourite material, followed by brass and copper. Bronze stands apart because you can’t work in it until it is cast. Aluminium, stainless steel and others, no thanks. But again, the beautiful silver I used during the period when I made metal valves, during the 1980s.’
Plaster & jute
When modelling in soft materials, Lucas’ preference is plaster and jute, an exciting technique because of the time pressure of solidification. Around a steel skeleton, lined with chicken wire, patches of jute soaked in plaster are placed again and again. Examples include the bison at the Zoo was the firstling, the giraffes at the primary school, the elephants mother and calf.
Wax & bronze
Bronze sculptures are cast after an original.
With ‘cire perdue’, the sculpture is modelled in clay, plaster or other material from which a mould is made so that a series can be cast.
With cire direct, the sculpture is modelled/composed from natural combustible materials. Due to the whimsical structure, a mould is impossible and the sculpture remains all on its own. For example, there are twigs, flowers, bark, jute, flax cord, cotton, … hard wax, hot liquid or in solidified sheets to process, and soft wax for details.
The construction is like iron: twigs -for the skeleton- are joined with strips of bandage gauze soaked in wax. Then work on with material that best interprets the texture of what is being depicted. Examples include camels, musk oxen, bison, ibex. The downside is again the price of bronze. Since it is technically impossible to make a mould of this, the sculptures are completely unique.
