26 october 2023, Indra Devriendt
Kasper De Vos - Nostos
It's a scorching hot day and you open the refrigerator door. Imagine being so small that you could step inside. Kasper De Vos takes you along on a journey at the Pizza Gallery.
A week before the opening of Nostos, everything is still set up in his studio in Ghent. For Kasper De Vos, his daily surroundings serve as a significant source of inspiration. Various materials, objects and events shape his imagination. The Greek word 'Nostos' means homecoming or return, as it was for Odysseus via the sea. "I need to move out of my studio in Ghent, so I'm looking for a new place to live in Antwerp," explains De Vos. That’s no easy feat. The nostalgia that comes with it can also be found in a podcast about rewilding. "It's a trend focused on returning to nature and seeking the pure, even though we exploit nature." The longing for such a return and nostalgia inspired his sculptures at the Pizza Gallery.
Self-portraitOn the ground floor is a stack of two refrigerators. "This is a reference to the gallery space, which is also two volumes stacked on top of each other," says De Vos. In one refrigerator, he displays a landscape sculpted from clay, with the scene depicting the artist chopping a walnut while floating in a small boat on a wild sea. There are also wooden apple seeds and a red lantern. In the other refrigerator, De Vos portrays an underground space. We see a worm emerging from a pipe. "I have a thing for pipes. My studio is full of them. You can see how something industrial like a pipe is inspired by nature and I like to explore the relationship between the two in my work. I cast that worm in PU foam and twisted it between parts of a roll-down shutter." On top of the refrigerators is a giant rotting apple. "I found an apple that had been eaten by wasps with only the core, stem and skin remaining. I sculpted a large apple and cast a mould of it in wax. The material allows me to heat it, reshape it and choose my own colour."
Imagination
"As a building, the gallery space will also serve as a boat," continues De Vos. "I'm going to hang a waving flag on the facade made from a roll-down shutter. On the top floor, there will also be a roll-down shutter representing the sail of the boat. It's an enlargement of the small scene with the boat in the refrigerator. There will also be a lantern, which I'm going to make from two barrels."
The use of roll-down shutters is a unifying theme throughout the exhibition. Apart from a few colour accents, De Vos primarily uses white and grey tones. The apple serves as a visual link throughout the ground floor arrangement and immediately draws attention. The combination with the apple seeds and worm evokes associations. "This exhibition is very narrative," confirms De Vos. "I enjoy letting the viewer fantasise. I like to create a whole with sculptures that can also stand on their own."
Kasper De Vos
Nostalgia
His sculptures are made from found materials or are handcrafted. "I often choose materials that evoke a memory or something nostalgic. Take, for example, the old wooden shutters. Nowadays, everyone replaces them with PVC ones. Those old shutters used to hang on my grandparents' house. The way they were opened reminds me of hoisting a sail. I also enjoy making sculptures: the craftsmanship, material exploration and experimentation. The process of creation is so enjoyable that I spend a lot of time on the process, perhaps too much," he laughs.
Kasper De Vos. Photo: Emma Terlinck
References to food are a constant in his work, ranging from natural foods like apples and nuts to industrial processes. The boat is a hamburger container and we need a refrigerator as a preservative. "Food also has something nostalgic about it and has numerous aspects," he adds. "Like the way we use it, store it and choose what we eat."
The walnut often appears in various sizes in his work. "A walnut and an apple grow organically and have a shell. A hamburger box and a mould are also like a shell. I am interested in everything that grows organically and has a shell. That's how my work also comes into being. I shape an idea in a specific context and the shell comes off when I remove the mould for the sculpture."
Grotesque
De Vos enjoys exploring scale differences with the same sculpture in the space, drawing the viewer into his fantasy world. "Enlarging something allows the viewer to relate to a sculpture more easily," he explains. "As a sculptor, shrinking is sometimes more practical for depicting a scene, for example. I only need to enlarge a few elements to allow viewers to immerse themselves in the story."
The worm could very well be a snake shedding its skin. "I use the grotesque to engage the viewer in a story. That's what I also like about Roald Dahl's books." Humour and visual associations also entice us to look more attentively. We stop in amazement and simply experience things as they are, without immediately defining them. The joy of looking encourages us to make connections and find meaning. After all, we are all in transit.
Nostos can be seen from 25 October to 19 November at the Pizza Gallery, Sint Janstraat 52, Antwerp, Belgium. Open Saturdays and Sundays from 2 PM to 6 PM.
Kasper De Vos. Photo: Emma Terlinck
