BE

Installatie met takken, ijzerdraad, was, jutte, acrylverf en kaarsvet.

Variabele afmetingen

2022

Na een lange wandeling in de stad Antwerpen kiest kunstenares Veroniek Van Samang een rustig en magisch plein voor haar project. Het plein draagt de naam ‘De grote koraalberg’ en spreekt haar dadelijk tot de verbeelding. Te midden van dit afgebakende vierkant bevinden zich prachtige bomen met een lange arm. Aan deze takken bevestigt Van Samang grote, kleurrijke trossen met wassen beelden in de vorm van koralen. 

De sculpturen zijn vervaardigd uit jutte in was gedrenkt en beschilderd met shellak en acrylverf. De jutte kan op die manier geboetseerd worden van binnen naar buiten. De takkenstructuren zijn op hun beurt beschilderd met acrylverf en kaarsvet. 

Deze fantasierijke, ritmische en kleurrijke vormenwereld laat je verlangen naar tropische oorden en zoete vruchten. Het idee paradijs is een thema dat bij Van Samang regelmatig de kop opsteekt. Haar werken zijn vaak een stil en vredevol artistiek activistisch statement tegen de huidige economische en politieke structuren die niet gebaseerd zijn op het welbevinden van mens en natuur. 

Thema’s als vergankelijkheid en kwetsbaarheid, cyclussen en ritmische herhaling, chaos en orde, kleur als rebellie tegen een betonnen omgeving vormen de leidraad van haar kunstenpraktijk. Eenvoud kan zeer complex zijn.

EN

Installation with branches, iron wire, wax, jute, acrylic paint and candle fat

Variable dimensions

2022

After a long walk in the city of Antwerp artist Veroniek Van Samang picks out a quiet and magic square for her project. The square is called ‘De Grote Koraalberg’ and immediately arouses her imagination. In the middle of this enclosed space there are lovely trees with a long arm. To these branches Van Samang attaches big, colourful bunches with wax, coral-shaped statues.

The sculptures are made of jute immersed in wax and painted with shellac and acrylic paint. In doing so the jute can be modelled from the inside to the outside. The branch structures at their turn are painted with acrylic paint and candle fat.

This imaginative, rhythmic and colourful world of forms makes you long for tropical places and sweet fruits. The idea of paradise is a frequent theme in Van Samang’s work. Her creations are often a silent and peaceful statement of an artistic activist against the current economic and political structures, which are not based on the well-being of man and nature.

Themes such as transiency and vulnerability, cycles and rhythmic repeat, chaos and order, colour as a rebellion against a concrete environment are the guideline of her practising art. Simplicity can be

very complex.

Artist statement

Veroniek Van Samang (1988) earned her master’s degree of pictorial art in 2013 at the Koninklijke Academie Voor Schone Kunsten (Royal Academy of Fine Arts) in Antwerp. Here she studied fashion and ceramics a few years earlier. In 2015 she obtained her pedagogical degree and after a few years of teaching she started her third master ‘investigation of the arts’ at the Sint-Lucas School of Arts, also in Antwerp.

Van Samang makes oil paintings on canvas and life-size ceramic totems, designs assemblages with mixed media. She puts together sculptures, paintings and objects in installations which have a tendency towards specific spaces and a social-artistic standpoint. Her colour palette is kept soft, dreamy and vivid. Her finds, which she later on strings together as beads, are collected as a modern hunter-gatherer. Materials such as wood, paint, clay, wool, rope, plaster, iron, concrete, candle fat and plastic are added together to form a new whole. She often confronts the organic and chaotic with ordered patterns.

Van Samang’s  creative process is a rendition of her restless, searching mind which wants to break out from definite structures, hierarchies and conventions, in which she feels sort of captured. This transformation process of material to work of art offers her a way of arranging her thoughts and feelings and criticizing her environment. While creating she finds a certain playful naivety, which in a way softens her serious view on society.

Nature in all its forms and qualities is an inexhaustible source of inspiration for Van Samang. The urge for a simpler way of life and authenticity nourishes her work. Around herself she spins a parallel universe and creates an ecological paradise. She grows vegetables and herbs in her own garden as well as in a big common garden according to the principles of the permaculture. Van Samang investigates the healing capacities of plants and nutrition on the human body and transfers this way of life into her work. Her investigations are based on spirituality, psychology, Buddhism and present-day shamanism. 

Van Samang’s  installations and works of art are a rebellion against the fast and hasty life and the complexity of today’s existence.

❤️  Thank you for all the residents who voted for this project. ❤️