Laurent Malherbe |2
Dutch sculptor Laurent Malherbe is a bit of an über-handyman: he effortlessly blends life and art in installations that redefine the concept of constructed realities. During his latest EKWC residency, however, Malherbe decided to scale down his buildings-in-progress to the size of a model-train decor. In the process he focussed on essentials, a bare minimum of floors and walls, a suggestion of interrupted activities as if the workers are out on their lunch break. In other works, Malherbe stays close to reality, making a plaster mould of his worn-down safety shoe and casting it in ceramics like a Van Gogh painting come to life and miraculously multiplied. Another work, a fragment of a decorative frame is executed in white chocolate – a humorous reference to Hansel and Gretel or, since this is Malherbe, a clear-cut case of home sweet home.
Guido van der Linden
For Guido van der Linden, teacher and coach at the School for Young Talent in The Hague, an EKWC residency was a return to his artistic practice and to his favourite theme of hidden or implicit presence. First, he press-moulded several large (1 meter diameter) ceramic dishes, designed to transmit the delicate sound of a heartbeat across a thirty-meter distance. Keeping them in one piece posed considerable technical problems, which only made him enjoy it more. He proceeded with a set of tiles modelled on the pavers in the street leading to his grandfather’s home. Only when these demanding works were finished, he found the space to play and experiment, throwing slabs of clay against trees in the Oisterwijk forest for instance. The results capture an absence, an empty space to indicate that something once was there.
Larissa Esvelt
Portugal’s colonial past is inextricably intertwined with the azulejo culture the country is so proud of. Larissa Esvelt, whose Portuguese father was born in Angola, crossed the cities of Lisbon and Porto to document the countless historical tileworks in public spaces, palaces and churches. The thousands of photographs she took served as inspiration for a series of figures she materialised during her EKWC residency. Esvelt wanted to transfigure the two-dimensional paintings of the azulejos to three-dimensional sculptures arranged in a theatrical, architectural setting. Pièce de résistance is a large female nude reclining on a pedestal that is part rock, part tilework. Her head a mask, her body an empty skin – not yet fully rounded out, or squeezed out and discarded? – she confronts the viewer with an impenetrable gaze. Remnants of chains and glazes emulating weathered azulejos suggest that time is still a long way from healing all wounds.
Bram van Leeuwenstein |1
In his quest for the thinnest, most transparent porcelain possible, Bram van Leeuwenstein (NL) spent three months at EKWC researching the tension between thinness and preventing deformation. He cast a plaster casting mold from a 3D-printed PLA mold for a light-object. After casting in Bone China, he worked on the object’s skin. He created new structures and layers by carving, etching, and sponging until he reached the desired translucency. Each lamp is unique in texture, painting, and glaze effects.
