Roots
Clay installation│2018
I work in situ with natural clay, which I have dug up at two locations (my mum’s place and my dad’s home). The locations are personal to me and this is important for the concept of my self-portrait. The clay has been excavated at two locations in the Waasland, more specifically Sint-Pauwels and Steendorp, with the coordinates 51°10’21.8”N 4°04.1”E en 51°08’12.03”N 4°15’24.4”E.
51°10’21.8”N 4°04.1”E
51°08’12.03”N 4°15’24.4”E
I start from the natural, pure properties of the unknown clay. One clay is very plastic but the other has a rather meagre structure. I didn’t want to adjust the clay, as it is the challenge to let the 2 clays determine the building techniques they require. I want the clay figures to reach a height of 176cm; this is my own length as a measure for the self-portrait. The floor plan is the same for both figures: a contour of my widest point, the hips.
For this work, I want to keep the work unfired: in a temporary state. This is a self-portrait with its own life, not a fossil. There is the double meaning: we are impermanent but what we do is attach ourselves to ‘stuff’. Our society has become materialistic. I would like the viewer to think about this. The viewer finds himself in proportion with the life-size figures and can walk around them and be one of them.