27 february 2023, Wouter van den Eijkel
The Studio of... Casper Braat
Final call for all passengers on flight … Casper Braat transformed Torch into a generic airport security and waiting area for Departures. Every detail has been thought of: from the steel benches to the vending machine and from the signage to the baggage carousel. Braat has an eye for the beauty in machines and objects that we usually prefer to store away rather than study closely. For example, he previously gave air conditioners and hand blenders a monumental status by executing them in marble. Departures toys with the same idea. The show is about waiting in a place you’d rather not be. This time too, Braat made the objects in the grey bins on the baggage carousel in polished marble. Departures can be seen until March 4 at Torch Gallery in Amsterdam. Final call for all passengers…
Where is your studio located?
I am in between two studios at the moment. I'm on the Piet Heinkade, where I have my name in large, white neon letters on the window, but I'm also in a space in the Veerstraat in Amsterdam. The work is made in different places, because almost nothing is made in the same way. For each object it is a matter of reinventing how it is made. Since I work in so many other places, Piet Heinkade 233 has more or less become my office.
Departures, Casper Braat, Torch Gallery
Previously, you made consumer products out of marble, such as hand blenders, sandwich makers and irons. I also remember an air conditioner. Departures takes place in the waiting area of an airport. Is there an overlap between your previous work and Departures?
Departures is about waiting, it’s about the idea that you want to go somewhere, but get stuck in the waiting room. Airports are the same all over the world and they are also places you don't want to be. So I show something that you would rather not see and that corresponds to what I made before. I have, for example, made white goods, kettles and coffee makers. All things that you put away as quickly as possible in a kitchen cabinet, but because they are designed as an image, you just have to look at them again. To show how beautiful something every day is or something you don't want to see.
So, it is not a criticism of our consumerist society?
Not necessarily, of course it is also about the sustainability problem, the fact that there are so many things that you can get today that you probably won’t be able to purchase in 50 years’ time. It’s not so much a criticism of flying, rather it is about showing how beautiful generic surroundings such as an airport and consumer goods are, while it they are still around.
Casper Braat, Waiting, 2023, Torch Gallery
You make all your sculptures in a completely realistic and finished style. Why do you prefer this style?
Because you can see every screw, for example on this skateboard, there is a kind of revaluation. Things that you normally don't like or that you actually try to hide suddenly become very special. Looking at such a clip on the skateboard makes you suddenly think: wow, that is beautifully made.
Anyone who sees the show is probably wondering how much time you’ve put into each sculpture. Which one took the longest to create?
Not the large sculpture, as you might expect, but the EarPods and the headphones. These are thin, curved shapes that are subject to tension. So I had to make those a few times, because they broke in the process. In general, I have a lot of fun making the sculptures, because they are all quite technically complicated things and you have to figure out how to do it every time. Sometimes they are shapes that you cannot execute in marble.
Casper Braat, AirPods, 2023, Torch Gallery
You are now working with the rather expensive marble. If money wasn't an issue, what material would you work with?
Then I would like to make bigger things. I find it exciting when projects become logistically challenging. I would also like to work with bronze, but that is a rather difficult material to finish well. I would also like to make more films in the future. It's not that I only want to continue working in marble, but that material just fits well with this subject.
You have been sponsored for this show by the Mondriaan Fund. Would you have been able to realize Departures, for which you transformed the gallery into an airport departure hall, without that funding?
No, I don't think that would have been possible. That financing ensures that you experiment a little more and that you make a film.
Casper Braat, Waiting in Limbo, 2023, Torch Gallery
What's the nicest compliment you've had about this show?
I like it when people watch my film for longer period and that you notice that it really does something to someone. Or that they come back again in the following weeks and have thought about the question: what was it actually about? If the layering of the work comes across, I consider that a great compliment.
What are you working on now?
Right now I am now working on a project that will become an installation, in which the space is part of the work. I don't know exactly what it will be yet, but I do intend to make work that is not completely finished. Work that show the making process a little more. I sometimes get asked about these works if they are plastic or cast. Then it is actually too well made.
Casper Braat
