July 2023
Souvenir (Bronze)
This work is based on an existing 1933 painting by M. Rakowski. A Polish painter who lived in Brussels. After a trip to his homeland, he made a series of paintings as souvenirs. I’ve bought the original painting (oil on panel) at a flea market in Couvin. For me, this work is a souvenir of the 10 years I’ve lived in Wallonia. The pasty painting was molded and a replica of it cast in bronze that I’ve patinated until the image became visible again.
May 2023
Souvenir / Jumeaux
Souvenir / jumeaux
These sculptures consist of a bronze replica of a branch in spring, the flower/leaf buds visible. The casting channels have been preserved, these form an interpretation of the branch due to the nature of the subject, mirroring it. The branch was patinated and the channels kept untreated bronze.
November 2022
Solid Horizon (Marble)
These works are composed of two marble slabs leaning against each other. Both slabs have a different size so there is no symmetrical angle but one of the two slabs is more slanted than the other. The top of the work forms a horizon at my eye level. I see these works as sublimated landscapes, two tectonic plates seem to propel each other higher in an equilibrium that could be rocked at any moment. The works were first shown in Mexico (Mexican marbles) where they defied two severe earthquakes, a fourth version I showed during the exhibition Avalancha, an Italian and a Spanish marble kept each other in balance there.
November 2022
Solid Horizon (ceramics)
These works are composed of a number of ceramic plates arranged at an angle against the wall. Each tile has a different size. At the top, they form one straight line, a horizon at my eye level of 158cm. To achieve this, the tiles lean against the wall at different angles. The tiles where made in Mexico with different type of clay (Oaxaca, Metepec)
May 2022
Variations sur les mêmes thèmes
In the “Variations sur les mêmes thèmes” works, Cole uses a limited number of ingredients to create series in which each work is slightly different from the others. On top of a vertical photograph of the sea with the horizon perfectly in the middle, two areas of colour are screen-printed that together make up half of the image. The colours used are the average colours of the sky and the sea. By arranging the surfaces in four different ways, four different compositions are created. The screen-printed areas are printed matt on top of the glossy image.
January 2022
L’heure Bleue / White rainbow
Stijn Cole’s black-and-white photos are Camera obscura images (L’heure bleue) in which the camera captures the light for an hour during the morning twilight. Cole made these works for the Images & Colors exhibition. White rainbow is a photograph of a rainbow converted to black and white. It forms a white arch in the image.
January 2022
1:1 Sculptures
The 1:1 sculptures are exact replicas of parts of the landscape. Cole moulds a part with a rectangular surface in places that are meaningful to him but, as with the other works, take on a universal character once they are shown to the public. The first ” recordings ” of the landscape were 2 parts of the Mont saint Victoire in Aix en Provence. He exhibited them in the Chateau de Chimay. These works were still executed in wax, since then he has only made this type of work in bronze. Other places that were reproduced were parts of the French coast in Cancale and a piece of a dry waterfall in Sautadet.
January 2022
2 steps aside
2 steps aside:
For this work, Cole made a journey from Texel (the Netherlands) to Bialowieza (Poland), a journey from a cultural landscape, the Dutch polders recently reclaimed from the sea, to the only remaining piece of primeval forest in Europe. In the middle of that journey (geographically and mentally), Cole visited a landscape park in Branitz (Germany). In this park, designed by Fürst Pückler Muscau, nature was composed for the first time in function of a visitor on foot. Previously, avenues were created in landscape parks so that people could move from one spectacular view to another by carriage. In Branitz, new views are constantly emerging. Cole made three pairs of photos in which I took two steps sideways in between the images. He converted these images into three times two drawings that were presented with the same spacing as in which the photos were taken (2 steps).
These photos where taken at Be-Part, the expo room there is round so he brought the left and right sides forward a bit to position both works in a straight line next to each other.
Façades was an expo with Hans Demeulenaere, Wesley Meuris, Honoré d’O & Stijn Cole