Heringa/Van Kalsbeek’s experimental use of materials and the plasticity of their expressive sculptures prompted the TextielMuseum to commission a new work by the artist duo. The artists were inspired by natural phenomena and their own ethnographic collection to produce 'Armor', a monumental sculpture that resembles an exotic flower and crowns the head of anyone who stands beneath it.
‘Armor’ consists of a metal structure adorned with laser-cut, resin-coated canvas wings, bright red pompoms and colourful cans. The sculpture is derived from the richly decorated headdresses traditionally worn by Chinese brides. The work hangs in the space like a three-dimensional drawing, seductively beautiful at first glance but 'raw and imperfect' on the back. The riot of colours and shapes seems to explode outwards, to blossom and drip, like moments of solidified gravity. Heringa/Van Kalsbeek are intrigued by the focus on the frontal view in cultural objects, flora and fauna – think of the male peacock who spreads his extravagant tail feathers to attract a mate. In ‘Armor’, the artists play with the idea of attraction and repulsion, by showing the viewer both the work’s enchanting front and the unfinished back covered in blobs of resin and frayed threads.
All the laser-cut elements are made from the same piece of brown canvas that product developer Frank de Wind cut out in the TextielLab. The artists then glazed the front of the canvas with layer upon layer of colourful resin to give it a kind of enamel or porcelain appearance. The original brown canvas is only visible on the back of the work.
Liet Heringa (1966) and Maarten van Kalsbeek (1962) make sculptures in which the creative process itself plays a decisive role. The artists experiment with materials and play with composition and coincidence. Besides bronze, ceramic and porcelain, they also use synthetic resin, nylon thread and feathers in their work. Their colourful, baroque pieces seem almost to have grown organically. Says Van Kalsbeek, “We have a plan before we start a sculpture, of course, but we also give a work the space to flow or solidify in a way that surprises us too.”
