Netherlands
Mieke de Waal
For my soft sculptures I form a mix of materials into floating painted objects that bring 'the human' into a space. The form symbolizes the human being: from a tiny dress to a more than man-sized kimono. Characteristic of my work process is that I immerse myself in a theme. The actual making process is also investigative, experimenting with materials and techniques. Besides being a visual artist, I am also trained as a cultural anthropologist. These two fields of interest - art and man - come together in my visual work.
For my outdoor sculptures, I usually choose rust-brown Corten steel. I explore: how do you give a heavy and hard material a light, open appearance? What else contributes to the atmosphere of a sculpture, apart from its subject matter? A series of sketches results in a sober but powerful design. The shapes are cut out of steel with water jet. The open work gives the hard, unapproachable, masculine steel a more frivolous, friendly, feminine look. And as soon as the sun shines, a changing play of light and shadow is created.
I like art when it is open, not hermetic. When it engages viewers, conjuring up bigger questions through its riddled meaning. Who are we? Where are we from? How do we relate to the world around us?
My soft sculptures usually have the form of a garment and hang on thin nylon cords in the room, gently swaying in a breeze. A garment I see as a symbolic representation of a human being. Roughly speaking, you could say that my soft sculptures are bigger than a man when the themes that they represent transcend the individual. They are small when the emotion is important. Big or small; none of these works is intended to be worn by a human.
In recent years I also choose for harder materials. I love it when the hard, unapproachable steel gets a frivolous, gentler, more lace-like look. Light and shadow make ever changing faces of these sculptures.
