Figures & masks
“Just as one sculpts in wax, plaster or clay, my masks are sculpted in steel. The metal is applied in melting and liquid form until the desired volumes are achieved. Grinding, sanding or other machines are not allowed. The forging hammer, the gas burner and the welding electrode are my ‘spatulas and brushes’. This powerful modeling method gives an extra dimension. Masks are an ideal area for this method.”
Bronze
Iron
Conversation. 2003
Unlike the others, this image has its own specific deviation. It was a period in which material circumstances were once again extra difficult, but the urge to create was even greater. One day I was leafing through an issue of National Geographic and was drawn to a photo of a girl from the new Russia. She had dressed herself in a homemade outfit made of newspaper, from crinoline to umbrella and handbag. Cute. But also an example that man’s ingenuity knows no bounds, no matter what state of poverty he finds himself in. The girl inspired me to use without shame a technique called assemblage that Vic Gentils often used.
I had just moved into an old farmhouse and there were a lot of farm tools lying around, ripe for the scrap heap. The result is a combination of this assembly technique and my personal working method. Hence the title: conversation. A collaboration with an earlier technique, outdated tools, the poverty of other peoples… That is why the radiant smile of the girl is missing from the photo.
And through it all the conversation intertwines with the most beautiful thing we all possess: the wonderful power of the infinite creative potential.
Masks
Just as one sculpts in wax, plaster or clay, my masks are sculpted in steel. The metal is applied in melting and liquid form until the desired volumes are achieved. Grinding, sanding or other machines are not allowed. The forging hammer, the gas burner and the welding electrode are my ‘spatulas and brushes’. This powerful modeling method gives an extra dimension. Masks are an ideal area for this method.
Sceptres
