Wouter Klein Velderman, PAMPERING INDUSTRIES

Garden
Invited by Massimo Uberti

The work and the materials I use have always had industrial characteristics: transport vehicles, storing tools, PVC canvases, wood, metal, or ready-made objects such as shelving, a windmill, a forklift.
Nevertheless, the works seem fragile, vulnerable. Although he treats these materials with great care and loving attention, the sculptures can also provoke uncomfortable feelings in the viewer. A huge lorry looks as if it is about to collapse on itself, a completely packed luggage rack serves as an unusual display for unsaleable “manic products”, an escalator has lain limply on a beach, instead of climbing over the dunes…
By placing art in public spaces, the artist has the possibility to reach a potentially infinite number of viewers; many people will be watching his work, without the artist having any relationship with this audience. This means that the interaction and depth of approach between the work and each of the people who see it will be different. In my research, these juxtapositions are the starting point; the public spaces and the materials with which I work my tools.

Wouter Klein Velderman was born in Deventer (Holland) in 1979. He lives and works in Amsterdam.