In Ghent, the first of May traditionally marks the opening of the festival season. Throughout the summer, the city is host to a range of festivities, culminating in the Gentse Feesten, a ten day city-wide festival.
The festival to kick off the season is DOK – a five-month freezone for art, recreation and creative manoeuvres, at the old industrial harbour of Ghent. This year, artist platform BLANCO invited me to make an on-site intervention with one of the buildings.
I made three works for the site, which cover three of the building’s (obsolete) windows.
There is a white geometric sculpture, which almost seems to be growing from the old concrete, and two freehand drawings on whiteboard echoing the shapes of the sculpture.
The sculpting process of the carving followed the same as with my on-going spatial studies: starting from a solid block and cutting away material. Since this one had to be mounted and fixed to the window - and be weather proof - I decided to cut it from a cubic meter block of Styrofoam, which was then painted white.
It was my first experience with a more traditional form of sculpting at this size. I’m now exploring possibilities of having this work cast in solid concrete, and am looking to make more works like this in other materials.
My work can be viewed at DOK Ghent from 1 to 31 May.