The Heringa/Van Kalsbeek porcelain creations, making their debut here in the UK as part of the Vegas Gallery's Ad Infinitum show, initially seem like examples of sculpture gone mad. Their forms are intriguing but not immediately accessible, and soon I was to discover that just like their makers, everything was not as it seemed.
Speaking to Dutch artists Liet Heringa and Maarten van Kalsbeek at the gallery, I quickly realised that these multicoloured, complex forms are carefully and thoughtfully constructed. They represent the couple’s wide-ranging ideas on sculpture, aesthetic beauty and balance whilst addressing the difficult issues regarding visions of reality. ‘The structures are originally thought of as wind sculptures, as if they would catch something that is blown in the wind’ explains Van Kalsbeek. He refers to the structure which in this sculpture, splays out from the centre with tentacle like arms and jagged plains of multi coloured shapes.
From the angle we stand at, this piece has no overall recognisable shape or form, but if you look for long enough the eye starts to pick out individual objects within its structure or at least one's mind tries to identify familiar shapes in order to make sense of it. The thin straw-like points are reminiscent of insect legs, and perhaps a lizard’s crest. There are feathers and flowers, water patterns. It is a mass of individual reflections of real objects or parts, each carefully put into the whole by the artists.
‘Our role is to control the piece but we don’t want to be in control totally,’ explains Van Kalsbeek. ‘We hope that people find many layers of interpretation’ says Heringa. They certainly achieve this, as it is hard to see the piece as a whole and therefore as one fixed object. As you move around it, it transforms so that what you may have recognised or discovered at one angle has now changed. It is amazing how balanced they are considering their unconventional shape, and this is where the artists’ talents lie. How difficult is it to really balance a sculpture of any form? And considering these pieces’ complexity, it does not shock me when I hear that they can take up to six months to complete.
The group of three artists involved in this particular exhibition all aim to challenge a percieved gothic theme prevalent in contemporary art for some years now. Whether the viewers can see hope and vitality in these works it is down to the perceptions they make. Alex Hudson displays several paintings depicting structures which can be linked back to 9/11. In his dark, brooding paintings he manages to conjure a feeling of hope and new awakenings by his use of colour and light.
Heringa & Van Kalsbeek go some way in juxtaposing disorder, confusion, and threat with beauty, balance and imagination. Disillusionment (as in the rejection of real meaning) is present in these sculptures, and when I ask if they aimed to create meaning within them or use them as sound pieces for their ideas on human life, I was met with quizzical faces. ‘We get ideas from plants and animals and documentaries’, says Heringa ‘It’s like a film in slow motion. You know its happening but you can’t see it.’
She gives me the example of a fish at a market with its beautiful scales, and when cut, seeing the insides as well and having both perspectives at the same time. ‘We would be worried if everyone had the same opinion.’ In a simple room with no clutter, a sculpture like this could transform the room, but the owners of the piece has to be comfortable with it. It almost seems like if they weren’t, the piece might start of take over their habitat like a living organism.
These pieces are great fun, both to look at and attempt to wrestle meaning from. A head spinner and all the better for it, well worth a visit.
Heringa & Van Kalsbeek
Ad Infinitum runs till 19 April, but be warned, it just may make your brain hurt. More info at www.vegasgallery.co.uk
