Sakura

2020 steel, foam, plastic 

“Sakura is specially for the huge window of the Singer theatre. Inspired by a recent trip to Japan, the colour pink refers to the spring blossom season, known as Sakura in Japanese. The brightly-coloured shapes wind through the space like living organisms, beautiful and sinister at the same time. The outer layer of the work is made out of plastic film used to wrap hay bails in the fields, serving as a protective, artificial skin. Sakura expresses the abundance of life that proliferates in the urban environment of our industrialised world. The French artist sees how the Dutch control and literally hold back nature. In her work, she allows nature to retake control of our hardened world.”

In spring 2020, I made a piece called “Sakura” for the Singer Museum in Laren. Both indoor and outdoor, the bright pink entity that lives halfway between roots and tentacles is crawling from the ceiling, on the floor and by the window. It follows the edge of the roof and hangs above the building and even goes down the stairs of the hallway. I have used a plastic foil used in the farming industry to wrap hay bales, making for me an interesting connection to a controlled nature. This thin plastic creates a protective skin over the sculptures that emphasise it . Inspired by a recent trip to Japan, the changing of the seasons, and the feeling of being in an era of systematic development, I was willing to give the space a spontaneous emergence of vegetation as an indication of an energy, of dynamic vitality. The tentacles are gross and inquisitive, and mimic the kind of eroticism found in the natural world; budding flowers, legumes sprouting, roots burrowing. Everything is ripe and bursting with energy. Sakura feels like springtime.