AN EXERCISE IN ABSOLUTE BALANCE
A few years ago Gert Robijns transformed a former garage in Charleroi into his home and studio. In the living space, large windows offer a view to an impressive exhibition area. Here there are no rules and no agenda to decide what should be seen. Robijns calls it his personal test space, but he often allows other artists to exhibit their work under the name Absolute. After a duo exhibition with Dirk Braeckman and Rezi van Lankveld, it is now the turn of Paul Casaer who presents his recent work in a coherent entirety.
The sculptures and installations of Paul Casaer (born 1967) are not easily recognisable. Objects from everyday life are simplified or given unusual characteristics. A different scale or balance, a new texture or colour is sometimes sufficient to create an alienating effect. However, Casaer’s enigmatic sculptures still speak through their materials. Each piece of work contains a story, alluding with a hint to reality. For example, I have to take time to properly look at “Payday” before I can identify what is before me: the artwork appears to be an oversized peanut made of resin. The peanut sits on its own at the concrete base of a thin tree with steel branches and appeals to the financial crisis in a poetic way: peanuts for Payday
Language
Language frequently forms the breeding ground for Casaer’s work. Metaphors are made specific once more, linguistic clichés are transformed into sculptures. In “On The Ropes” the metaphor of an arduous battle is pictured by the image of the boxing ring which is translated into a sample of ropes in various colours and designs. In this way Casaer creates a space for the spectator to physically become part of the metaphor. On close inspection, the ropes appear to be made from wood and are hand-painted. As autonomous sculptures, they appear to refuse to confirm their apparent function as ropes. Casaer shows that things do not have to be functional in order to expose a whole experience. And still: the poles where the ropes are hung are industrially covered with plastic. Casaer’s installations vary between decoration and reality, craftsmanship and industrial reproduction. It seems as if his images desire to be part of a self-constructed world of images, but then do not completely cut ties with reality.
In a corner of the space we see “Pink News, Massive Sunlight”, a piece of Sunlight soap that the artist blew up and made of iron and a pile of financial papers, nonchalantly placed next to each other. Once again the artist couples the literal with the expressive, metaphoric twilight zone where various strange contradictions are created. In addition “Little Less China” is created from three destroyed panels of what was once a Chinese screen. The sketches which were worked into the screen were cut by Casaer with a grinding wheel to deprive the object part of its identity. The redundancy makes room for the sublime. What remains are empty outlines which are partly recognisable, but which primarily offer an opening for a new meaning.
Mathematical
In an attempt to break open the unequivocality of the entrenched language, Casaer allows his objects to suggest several possibilities. By way of sculptural additions, adjustments and repetitions, Casaer plays on the mechanisms of our perception and he allows us to be freed from the final product. In this test area the extendibility of the objects are fully tested. We also see this with “Various Right Angles”, a number of angle irons in three different sizes which are placed in a row in different angles and constellations. It is like a landscape with windmills where the wicks rotate in an unsynchronised manner, sometimes briefly matching only to run out of synch again. The whole exhibition resembles a styled landscape, a sculptural field where new links are constantly created. Casaer’s work is more than the sum of its parts. “Often an extra layer slips into the process of creation and recapturing”, says Casaer. “It is all about experiencing such an object in the space.” But apart from the intuitive, the mathematical ratios and the well-considered white areas in the exhibition also display a minimalistic taste. The artist states he owes a lot to Donald Judd. For me, Casaer is primarily a modern-day magical realist: in the search for the perfect balance between the figurative and abstraction, Casaer succeeds in creating a transcendental world. And still his images remain tactile and familiar.
Laura Herman
H-Art
A few years ago Gert Robijns transformed a former garage in Charleroi into his home and studio. In the living space, large windows offer a view to an impressive exhibition area. Here there are no rules and no agenda to decide what should be seen. Robijns calls it his personal test space, but he often allows other artists to exhibit their work under the name Absolute. After a duo exhibition with Dirk Braeckman and Rezi van Lankveld, it is now the turn of Paul Casaer who presents his recent work in a coherent entirety.
The sculptures and installations of Paul Casaer (born 1967) are not easily recognisable. Objects from everyday life are simplified or given unusual characteristics. A different scale or balance, a new texture or colour is sometimes sufficient to create an alienating effect. However, Casaer’s enigmatic sculptures still speak through their materials. Each piece of work contains a story, alluding with a hint to reality. For example, I have to take time to properly look at “Payday” before I can identify what is before me: the artwork appears to be an oversized peanut made of resin. The peanut sits on its own at the concrete base of a thin tree with steel branches and appeals to the financial crisis in a poetic way: peanuts for Payday
Language
Language frequently forms the breeding ground for Casaer’s work. Metaphors are made specific once more, linguistic clichés are transformed into sculptures. In “On The Ropes” the metaphor of an arduous battle is pictured by the image of the boxing ring which is translated into a sample of ropes in various colours and designs. In this way Casaer creates a space for the spectator to physically become part of the metaphor. On close inspection, the ropes appear to be made from wood and are hand-painted. As autonomous sculptures, they appear to refuse to confirm their apparent function as ropes. Casaer shows that things do not have to be functional in order to expose a whole experience. And still: the poles where the ropes are hung are industrially covered with plastic. Casaer’s installations vary between decoration and reality, craftsmanship and industrial reproduction. It seems as if his images desire to be part of a self-constructed world of images, but then do not completely cut ties with reality.
In a corner of the space we see “Pink News, Massive Sunlight”, a piece of Sunlight soap that the artist blew up and made of iron and a pile of financial papers, nonchalantly placed next to each other. Once again the artist couples the literal with the expressive, metaphoric twilight zone where various strange contradictions are created. In addition “Little Less China” is created from three destroyed panels of what was once a Chinese screen. The sketches which were worked into the screen were cut by Casaer with a grinding wheel to deprive the object part of its identity. The redundancy makes room for the sublime. What remains are empty outlines which are partly recognisable, but which primarily offer an opening for a new meaning.
Mathematical
In an attempt to break open the unequivocality of the entrenched language, Casaer allows his objects to suggest several possibilities. By way of sculptural additions, adjustments and repetitions, Casaer plays on the mechanisms of our perception and he allows us to be freed from the final product. In this test area the extendibility of the objects are fully tested. We also see this with “Various Right Angles”, a number of angle irons in three different sizes which are placed in a row in different angles and constellations. It is like a landscape with windmills where the wicks rotate in an unsynchronised manner, sometimes briefly matching only to run out of synch again. The whole exhibition resembles a styled landscape, a sculptural field where new links are constantly created. Casaer’s work is more than the sum of its parts. “Often an extra layer slips into the process of creation and recapturing”, says Casaer. “It is all about experiencing such an object in the space.” But apart from the intuitive, the mathematical ratios and the well-considered white areas in the exhibition also display a minimalistic taste. The artist states he owes a lot to Donald Judd. For me, Casaer is primarily a modern-day magical realist: in the search for the perfect balance between the figurative and abstraction, Casaer succeeds in creating a transcendental world. And still his images remain tactile and familiar.
Laura Herman
H-Art