About my work:
Luck Staging Manipulation— this title of one of my works can be read as a classification system for my oeuvre. Through this system I can approach my work. It also represents a good survey of the context and can be used to understand and reflect on my work .
My main goal is to explore the relationship between language and images. Words as gesture, words as a generator for associations, words as constructs of meaning and fiction. My installations, sculptures and collages are made of things I find in my studio, on the street, flea markets or receive from friends and family. Highly diverse and (mostly) cheap materials brought together in an a-typical way to transform into something new (in form and/or meaning).
My secondary goal is to explore the aesthetic possibilities of the materials I use. One could easily say for ecological reasons, but this is not the case. I like the rawness these materials carry and their history. The scratched surfaces, the faded colors, stains and marks... I like to use these small interactions in my work as an extra layer of meaning, for their memories or as an association. Since I’m not a trained sculptor, I have to work with lots of patience. To build and rebuild, manipulate pieces and think and handle these as if making a 3D-collage. Searching for a good balance between materials, spatial configuration and the idea or concept.
The results of these ‘actions’ are pending between provocatively playful and deadly serious works.
A nice quote to end by the Belgian artist Stefaan Dheedene: “If there’s nothing doubtful to detect in my work, one would not search for meaning.”
Joachim Coucke
2009