On view unitl October 5.
There is a fascinating contrast in the work of Bram Vanderbeke. Especially in this series of Cast Models, in which an everyday material gives rise to highly personal and original pieces. He takes what we still unmistakably recognise as concrete out of its primarily functional context. In turn, he adopts it as an expressive medium. In this process, Vanderbeke deliberately modifies the standard formula, aiming for renewed textures and tonal subtleties, and revealing the sculptural potential of raw and honest materiality.
These concrete models—cast renderings of stacks of bricks in intuitive compositions—possess a certain roughness. They appear weathered, older than they are, and intentionally renounce the usual perfection and smoothness we associate with finished concrete. From the first impression, these sculptures reflect a genuine appreciation of basic building and construction, which Vanderbeke freely and playfully reinterprets according to his vision.
All of these sculptures are, in that sense, explorations—affectionate studies that inform and inspire Vanderbeke’s current and future thoughts and actions. A visual language he continues to refine. Like a poet stringing words together in ever-changing ways until sentences—or sometimes just sounds and rhythms—emerge that are then his own, Vanderbeke makes variations that lend his work a specific yet ever-expanding formal idiom.
Although the models are small in scale, they are undeniably sculptures. In fact, even if the word model generally refers to a planned reinterpretation, here they exist fully and autonomously. Moreover, they do not have a clearly defined function; they do not serve a specific purpose. But they are suggestive of one and do not exclude a potential use. Their possible functionality becomes an added value—an extended identity that embeds their artistic existence in the dynamics of everyday life.
In this context, the word model refers more to an intrinsic capacity, or perhaps even more to an aspiration. A desired perspective in which the current scale is initially sufficient, but could also be increased. At that point, the sculptural objects acquire architectural impact. Their increased scale links them more emphatically to a built environment—or positions them as monumental presences in an urban, or even desolate, landscape. This perspective is inseparable from the way in which the models relate to the fundamental aspects of building.
Essentially, every choice Vanderbeke makes in this series stems from one constant: the visual echo of the bricks used to form the moulds. Not least their stacking and their archetypal, traditional shape. But also their textures, and the use of concrete itself, which is inextricably linked to how the bricks are brought together. This remains true even when the concrete— particularly in terms of tonality—deviates from what we expect. Over the years, colour has even become an object of research in itself: sometimes subtle, sometimes striking. Years in which experiments and studies have allowed the models to evolve from cautious explorations to confident manifestations of artistic commitment.
Text by Bram Vanderbeke
