Entropic Sculpture
The Entropic Sculpture series is based on the idea of entropy — the natural tendency of any system to lose order over time.
In physical terms, entropy is a measure of disorder or irreversible change: what is solid becomes liquid; what is structured eventually breaks apart. In these works, that principle is made tangible within the material itself.
Where traditional sculpture often strives for permanence and preservation of form, Entropic Sculpture starts from the opposite premise: it exists by virtue of change. The sculptures melt, deform, evaporate or flow apart — they do not present a final result, but a continuous process. The artwork becomes temporary, breathing, and subject to time and temperature.
Here, entropy is not a threat but a creative engine. Every phase of decay is simultaneously a phase of formation. The work lives off its own instability: in the act of melting, meaning emerges.
Transformations
2018_2019 – Entropic Sculpture No. 1
In this work, I use self-made ice cubes suspended from a stainless-steel wire structure. As the cubes melt, the form of the construction changes. Depending on the process, I randomly add new ice cubes. The meltwater is collected by a layer of moss on which the sculpture rests.
The link to entropy lies in the continuous loss of order. The sculpture exists in a constant state of transition: from structure to fluidity, from control to release. It is a living example of entropy — a process that continuously cancels and renews itself.
The shape of the cubes recalls the mathematical symbol for infinity. Yet there is an inherent ambiguity: because the ice continually disappears, the sculpture is anything but infinite.
The project was recorded across the seasons of spring, summer, and winter, each captured in short video clips showing the slow process of melting, rebuilding, and disappearance. In spring and summer, the process unfolded naturally — during an exceptionally hot summer period. In winter, I manipulated the sculpture with hot steam, intensifying and accelerating the transformation.
Spring
Summer
Winter
2019 - Slow Construction–Deformation
This video work stands apart from the entropic concept but arose from the same material research. The wooden blocks I used to create the silicone mould became the starting point for a new experiment.
In Slow Construction–Deformation, a sculpture appears static but gradually changes shape over ten minutes. This is not a 3D animation, but an experiment with real objects and video techniques to simulate subtle transformation. The wooden mould pieces and the stainless-steel structure from the previous project were reused here.
2021 – Aqua Entropica
Between Entropic Sculpture no. 1 and no. 2 emerged a transitional work titled Aqua Entropica.
De titel Aqua Entropica verwijst naar water als drager van verandering én als symbool van vergankelijkheid. In dit werk versmelten twee tegenstrijdige verlangens: de natuurlijke beweging naar verval (entropie) en het culturele verlangen naar behoud of eeuwigheid.
The title Aqua Entropica refers to water as both the carrier of change and a symbol of transience. In this work, two opposing desires converge: the natural movement toward decay (entropy) and the cultural longing for preservation or eternity.
The idea of immortality takes on an ironic tone here. It is not the artist who seeks eternal life, but the art world itself — preserving, archiving, and attempting to fix what naturally disappears. By transforming the act of melting into a drinkable extract, that urge becomes tangible: a moment in which transience can quite literally be swallowed. Art as an entropic elixir — eternity in liquid form.
2021 – Entropic Sculpture No. 2
This project builds on Entropic Sculpture no. 1. Here too, the starting point is a sculpture made of ice, continuously changing shape.
The larger scale and technical approach make this continuation fundamentally different. A welded stainless-steel frame (41 × 38 × 62 cm) fits precisely into a small freezer beneath it. The sculpture was assembled by melting stainless-steel rods into the ice with heat, or by joining ice cubes together using cold water. A stainless-steel basin collects the meltwater and directs it into a bucket.
The installation was documented in two ways. A montage of four camera angles showing the progression of the sculpture. The same angles were projected in a 3D program onto a rotating block, giving the sculpture a virtual second dimension.
Entropic Sculpture no. 2 presents entropy as a cyclical principle: form melts, but reappears in new guises. The sculpture exists in the balance between disappearance and re-formation.
2024 – Live at the Exhibition: Transformation Studio no. 1 – Warm or Cold
During this exhibition, the sculpture was presented live for the first time. Connections were drawn between the themes of power and coldness — emotional detachment as a figurative form of cold. Various works from my oeuvre were brought into dialogue.
I designed new tools, a kind of chisel heated with an induction device, to shape the ice sculpture. The aim was to create a human figure formed by heat. The small ‘commander’ figure from the project Choose and Change was frozen inside the ice — a figure of authority becoming literally colder and colder.
Near the melting figure, I presented the 3D animation The Cold Man, a digital counterpart of the same idea: cold power in virtual form.
The next step will be to work with thinner layers of ice, allowing the sculptures to melt and deform more quickly. In this version, the ice was still too massive, causing the process to unfold very slowly.
