The Snail Language translator Device was made during the Galichnik art residency in Macedonia.
During the 10 days of this residency I made several photo series and one sculpture, the above called device.
LOOK BACK: 1985
Here is one of the first spatial works I made at the art academy in Arnhem (NL), back in 1985.
Curved metal and prepared cotton, about 3 meters high. For a photo I put it on the fountain within the Blue Waves (Blauwe Golven) art work in Arnhem, made by Peter Struycken in 1977.
While making this work I seriously injured my hand a week before. A wire of metal whipped as I bent and cut deep into the heel of my left hand, right through the glove. The scar is still there. I looked into deep white flesh, whereupon my legs went limp like chewing gum. I seem to have been knocked out for a moment, because when I opened my eyes I saw the workshop assistant busy with a bandage. A wet cloth lay on my forehead. He was also kind enough to drive me to the emergency room at the hospital. A whopper of a tetanus shot in my thigh and then I was out of 'mortal danger' again 😉.
Here's a look back at my first smaller sculptures (approx. 30 - 40 cm), made 3 years ago from ultra-light PLA thermoplastic material. They are handmade with a 3D pen with a clear nod to the 3D printer. The material PLA used comes from the ''3D printer'' as a filament (wire), but I apply this purely analogously, without the intervention of a computer, building line on line. At the moment I am working on larger sculptures. The material I used in 2020 is (semi) transparent. They are sculptures that can be illuminated, i.e. light that falls on them plays through the material.
Downteching / uptechning
It is a personal pleasure to mix old appliances with modern technology. I
hate the word obsolete when it comes to devices that once represented
the best of technology at the time and are now discarded on the rubbish
heap. Often there is more to find behind the label ''obsolete''.
I recently ran into a very nice tube radio from Philips, Dutch built from 1948,
completely surrounded by a near perfect bakelite cabinet. By making a
small technical adjustment, the radio now works on bluetooth and I can play my
Spotify playlists via my phone through a 70-year-old speaker!
Last week I began working on a ''Turrim Plastoid''. These are sculptures I make with PLA (Polylactic Acid), a substance coming from the 3D printing world. I use it with a 3D pen and build vertical sculptures with it, BY HAND!
Een paar maanden geleden maakte ik een 1 mm dikke glassculptuur op een raam in Arnhem. Met direct zonlicht komt deze “Entropie Membraan 1” (200 x 45 cm - 2023) het best tot zijn recht! Hier een paar details.
'Leoninus Plastoid'', made on the balustrade of my balcony, and named after my street. Below a night shot of the neck of the ...
