11.05.2013 – 01.06.2013
RL: While looking at simple natural processes affected by the changing seasons, I realized that the most effective natural force is time itself. Every physical and even mental material is somehow affected by it. Just as mountains and seas, ideas change in the process of time. I can look at something for half a second or take my time and let it sink in. What is possible in a specific time-frame? The video 21min 15sec shows an ice-cream slowly melting in the sun. The experience of time is like a struggle between concentration and boredom and it’s notedly personal. While watching the video one jumps back and forth from observing a physical event, to entering a meditative state of mind.
DA: What I find interesting is the time-frame you are talking about. It seems to me that the physical condition of the given material frames itself just by unfolding the meditative state of the working process: the interaction between tools, material and intention. How are you dealing with this specific state and the notion of creating an artificial composition?
RL: There always comes a point when I have to decide which moment of the work I show. The beginning, the process, the product or nothing. The moment frames the work and practically determines it’s form. Sometimes the most interesting moment is the work setting, the relation between tools, materials and the making. One act leads to another and the chaos of things little later calls for order. I’m constantly making a mess and cleaning up again.
DA: Within this process of creating and composing, you leave much room for reflection – an opportunity to move back and forward in time. In your sculptural intervention next to the entrance for example (2013, advertisements, concrete, paint and wood), the accumulation of materials chains the working momentum to something more infinite, in this case to the habitual gesture of receiving quotidian advertisements. How does the real-time surroundings interferes with your temporary events?
RL: By freezing a spontaneous event in concrete, it is continued forever. It wil always look like it just happened and carry something of the present to the future. It is almost like we wittness the appearance of the work. It lives in our head. There is a small chance of actually hearing the metal letterbox open&shut and catching a glimpse of the mail falling in. The order of chance fascinates me. I like the idea of the mailman participating in the work without knowing it. He connects and confronts two worlds.
akv st.joost mfa 