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MANILA, Philippines - Who is this sculptor who creates life-sized installations of disturbing scenes?
He was born in Alkmaar, the Netherlands in 1972. He attended the Academy for Visual Arts, Amsterdam and the Rijksacademy for Visual Arts, Amsterdam and has held residencies in New York, the Netherlands, Norway, France and India. In 2003 he was a finalist for the Prix de Rome for sculpture.
His installations are life-size representations of disturbing scenes including human figures and props formed from materials such as polyurethane and Styrofoam; his work often references the uncanny and takes influence from the aesthetics horror and the history of conflict, war and politics.
His works convey an uncanny and dreamlike quality where the perverse collides with the familiar.
His previous installation, “The Iceman Cometh” (2001) has been influenced by artists such as George Grosz, Otto Dix and James Ensor in evoking both humor and violence. Through exploring the more disruptive and disturbing side of the unconscious his sculptural characters appear at times brutal, playful, mutilated, hybridized, power-crazed or deranged.
He is fascinated by the way in which some people can be consumed by obsession. He immerses himself in imagining the thoughts and motives of existing or fictitious characters: witch hunters, religious maniacs, political fanatics, militarists and serial killers. He investigates and reconstructs the manner in which these people mark their environment with language, signs, symbols and rituals.
Many of his sculptural figures have limbs missing and are situated in a curious world of symbolic props, also made from styrofoam, including industrial pallets, a legless horse, radiators and junk food detritus.
His works metaphorically explore the fragile barrier that separates security from chaos and play from violence. His chosen materials are skillfully manipulated to convey this sense of fragility while emphasizing the gravity and disruptive power of what he shows us unfolding nightmarishly in his work.
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