Construction with Blue
Transformations
Start 2001 - Experimental Setup for Flat People
Experimental Setup for Flat People was a sculpture that explored the idea of creating a three-dimensional painting. The work revolved around the human urge to be “in the picture” — as in the television show Big Brother — while beneath the stage of attention hides an unseen labyrinth.
Materials: sheet steel, plexiglass
Dimensions: 150 × 90 × 200 cm
2004 - Big Brother in Malfunction
Big Brother in Malfunction is a video work that brings together two sculptures: Camera Ball and Experimental Setup for Flat People.
The video combines fragments from Experimental Setup for Flat People with footage of Camera Ball. The sphere first stands still, then slowly begins to rotate, intercut with camera images from the larger sculpture. Gradually the movement accelerates until the ball spins faster and faster, pushing the system into malfunction. Control turns into chaos — echoing the theme of Camera Ball, but now rendered in motion.
The work connects to a broader fascination with power, technology, and breakdown: systems designed for control that cannot escape their own internal logic.
2002 - Camera Ball
Camera Ball is a network of cameras connected by cables. The structure resembles a snowball rolling down a mountain, growing larger as it gathers momentum. The sphere is built from the inside out, with a central core functioning as a nervous centre. When that core spins out of control, it pulls all the cameras along with it — Big Brother is born.
Materials: sheet steel, 1.5 mm
Dimensions: diameter 45 cm
2014 - Addition of Roof Elements with Light
During further development of the installation Construction with Blue, two roof elements with built-in spotlights were added. This addition literally brought light into the structure and emphasised the stage area.
The elements were later re-used, as shown in the video above.
2014 - Construction with Blue
360° Video Installation Construction with Blue, Solo Exhibition Pro-Life (2015), CC De Adelberg, Lommel
This large installation (500 × 210 × 210 cm) symbolises life, from birth to death. From a restless blue plane grows a labyrinth of staircases, followed further on by a kind of stage.
With its ups and downs, the path descends toward the coffin, where another flat blue plane lies at the foot. On the floor next to the installation lie two roof elements from the structure, painted in the same blue.
Life and death here are literally suspended within a construction of white and yellow — a rationally defined boundary. The concept is inspired by social constructivism, an epistemological perspective which holds that what we experience as reality is not self-evident but socially shaped. Meanings, values, and boundaries arise through human interaction rather than from an independent reality. From this idea emerges the question: are ‘life’ and ‘death’ also human constructions? Is a life one’s own design, or are we born into a structure shaped by others?
A construction never consists of a single element but always of a composition. Likewise, life cannot exist without death: they form each other’s necessary counterpart.