Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian

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    In Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian, I explore the tension between control and surrender, between geometric order and natural processes. Drawing on my experiences from the project Melting Compositions (2018) and taking Piet Mondrian’s Composition C (No. III) (1935) as a point of departure, I bring his pursuit of purity back into contact with the materiality of nature.

    Transformations

    2025 - Stretcher Frames and Eyelets

    For the paintings still in my possession, the stretcher frames were removed. Around the edges of each canvas, metal eyelets were attached.

    2019_2020 – Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 2 and No. 3

    For these series, I built a new setup in which stone plates were placed beneath the canvas, close to its surface. Around the work, I constructed a high frame to contain the fragments of ice within the boundaries of the piece. The working method again originated from the same silicone mould used in no. 1, filled with the same coloured water.

    Whereas in no. 1 I carefully positioned the coloured ice blocks, in no. 2 and no. 3 I adopted the opposite approach: the pieces of ice were thrown forcefully onto the canvas. As a result, the melting process became more erratic and fragmented. This created a sharp contrast between Mondrian’s ordered planes and the unpredictable flow of matter — between his pursuit of absolute abstraction and the resurgence of a natural, organic process.

    In no. 3, I prepared five canvases ranging from entirely white to completely green. On each one, I shattered a full ‘ice version’ of Mondrian’s composition.

    • Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 2 and No. 3 — two paintings from No. 2 hang next to each other in an exhibition space, with a bright green illuminated doorway leading to another room.
    • Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 2 and No. 3 — wider view of the exhibition space with two paintings from No. 2 and a doorway glowing with bright green light leading to the next room.
    • Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 2 and No. 3 — further in the space a series of five paintings from No. 3 is shown, created by throwing a Mondrian ice plate into a container five times, gradually shifting toward green.
    • Concept drawing for Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 3 — sketch of the action where a Mondrian ice plate is thrown or dropped into a container onto a canvas.
    • Setup for Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 3 — white box construction in which a canvas lies beneath stone plates, with rounded edges to keep the melting ice within the frame.

    2019 – Exhibition Concept

    • Exhibition concept Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1 — overview of an exhibition space with a small tree in a painted pot placed in front of a wall with paintings and flatscreens showing the melting process of the works.
    • Exhibition concept Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1 — closer view where branches and leaves of the tree partially cover the paintings and screens.
    • Exhibition concept Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1 — detail of the tree in front of the wall with paintings and screens, making the works literally viewed through greenery.

    For the presentation of the Mondrian works, I devised an exhibition concept in which the paintings are shown alongside process videos. The television screens are exactly the same size as the paintings. In the video, a single tree appears, but the idea is that visitors must first pass through — or, metaphorically, look through — a fragment of nature in order to view the works.


    2018_2019 – Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1

    In Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian no. 1, I created an exact silicone mould of Piet Mondrian’s Composition C (No. III) (1935). I filled the colour fields with water in identical hues and froze them. The resulting pieces of coloured ice were carefully placed on the canvas. As the ice melted, the colours spread out and traced their own paths in a completely natural way. In total, I created six versions.

    Mondrian evolved from Impressionism through Symbolism to pure abstraction. With his compositions of primary colours, he sought to transcend nature and achieve an ‘absolute beauty’. Movement, depth, and naturalism gradually disappeared from his work.

    With Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian, I offer a counter-movement: Mondrian’s purified compositions regain a sense of natural character through their transformation into coloured ice, undergoing organic processes of change.

    Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1.1

    • Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1.1 — process photo of coloured ice blocks arranged in a Mondrian-like grid; red, blue and yellow ice begin melting on a white surface.
    • Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1.1 — process photo showing the ice melting further; water and pigment spreading across the sections of the grid.
    • Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1.1 — process photo with visible meltwater; blue and red pigments spreading within the black grid.
    • Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1.1 — process photo where the ice is almost completely melted; colour areas become more transparent and begin to blend.
    • Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1.1 — final process stage; remaining meltwater and pigment form soft colour fields within the grid.

    Selection of video stills.

    Watch the video work on MakerTube via this link.

    Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1.1 — final result of the painting; a Mondrian-like grid with soft, diffused colour fields in red, blue, yellow and white.

    Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1.2

    • Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1.2 — process photo of coloured ice blocks placed in a Mondrian-like grid; red and blue fields begin to melt on a white surface.
    • Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1.2 — process photo showing the ice melting further; water and pigment slowly spreading within the sections of the grid.
    • Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1.2 — process photo with visible meltwater; red and yellow pigments begin to flow along the black grid lines.
    • Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1.2 — process photo where the ice is largely melted; blue pigment gathers in one section while other colours diffuse.
    • Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1.2 — final process stage; remaining meltwater and pigment form transparent colour traces within the grid.

    Selection of video stills.

    Watch the video work on MakerTube via this link.

    Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1.2 — final result of the painting; a Mondrian-like grid in which red, blue and yellow colour fields partially flow and blend within the black lines.

    Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1.4

    • Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1.4 — process photo of the painting with black grid lines on a white surface while a hand with a brush applies a transparent liquid.
    • Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1.4 — process photo showing the black grid on the white surface while liquid spreads along the lines.
    • Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1.4 — process photo with a blue ice block placed in one section of the grid; the surface begins to melt.
    • Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1.4 — process photo where blue and yellow pigments flow along the grid lines and begin to mix.
    • Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1.4 — final process stage; red, blue and yellow paint spread across the grid as the meltwater dries.

    Selection of video stills.

    Watch the video work on MakerTube via this link.

    Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1.4 — final result of the painting; a Mondrian-like grid in which red, blue and yellow paint flows across and along the black lines.

    Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1.5

    • Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1.5 — process photo of a white surface with black grid lines where a first blue colour area appears.
    • Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1.5 — process photo where a blue ice block lies in one section of the grid and begins to melt.
    • Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1.5 — process photo where meltwater spreads along the black lines while the blue pigment deepens.
    • Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1.5 — process photo where the blue pigment flows further and mixes with water and surrounding areas.
    • Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1.5 — final process stage where red pigment flows downward across the grid and merges with other colours.

    Selection of video stills.

    Watch the video work on MakerTube via this link.

    Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1.5 — final result of the painting; a Mondrian-like grid where red paint flows downward and interacts with blue and yellow colour fields.

    The works Back to Nature with Piet Mondrian No. 1.3 and No. 1.6 are part of a private collection.

     


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