Sublimation

Public Art

 

Sublimation, substitute for religious sublimation
2005

For a public art project next to the bunkers of the Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie (a defence system build in the 19th century) I was asked to make a contemporary bunker.

After my first proposal where the idea of religion as a bunker was refused I made an edition of 100 umbrellas; Sublimation, substitute for religious sublimation.

The impermeability of the reinforced concrete of the bunkers of the Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie is flanked by the most basic shelter that exists: the umbrella. The umbrella protects a person against what might affect him or her personally. Literally, the rain, the rain can metaphorically represent consciousness seeps. We prefer not to be touched by raindrops, we shake the cold and wet off. Maybe that’s human. Also our society seems to revolve largely around the sum and not of its parts. Is that a form of sublimation? transcending the fact that today’s shelter is full of holes?