Residing and working in London, UK, Bouke de Vries (1960, Utrecht, the Netherlands) is a designer, curator, and artist. Throughout his career as a curator, he has grappled with issues and paradoxes surrounding perfection and value: While “The Venus de Milo” is revered despite losing her arms, a Meissen muse is deemed practically worthless after losing a finger. These contradictions have become the foundation of his artistic practice. With his “exploded” artworks, he utilizes his skills as a restorer (inspired by Ron Mueck’s model building) to help broken pots overcome their unfortunate trauma. He refers to this as “the beauty of destruction.” Instead of reconstructing them, he deconstructs them. Rather than concealing the evidence of this most dramatic episode in a ceramic object’s life, he emphasizes their new status, virtues, values, and stories.
www.ftn-books.com has the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag invitation now available.
