Stephan Balkenhol

interview & transration /Tomio Koyama Gallery

Bio & Works  Press Release   page｜ 1  2 >>

I am interested in how we see ourselves and how we can find an image of ourselves and for ourselves.

I would like to begin by asking about your selection for this exhibition; did you have a particular concept or theme for this show?

It's not one special theme or idea. The show consists of different groups: the relief, landscapes, architecture… and the figurative sculpture in relation to abstraction. Maybe for the selection I was a bit conscious of the Japanese culture; formally how landscape is treated in classical Japanese art, especially in Kakejiku.

Did you do some research about Japanese art?

No, not really but they are loosely based on my visual memories of Japan. A lot of things can be thought of and related philosophically, especially on ‘emptiness’ or ‘Nothingness’. Also the possibility of ‘Being.’ The ‘Being’ becomes more present. All works here is kind of existential research about ‘Being’ and about representation of mankind; how we see ourselves and how we can find an image of ourselves and for ourselves.
This show might be a showcase of how I have been working in the last 20 years: I represent figures / events / results without any connotations or sociological connection. The figures I create are just someone and they have no names. They are not portraits either. They are imaginary men but they could be someone. So they have a special kind of expression that is not very expressive, and the same goes for their gestures. But as a viewer, we could imagine all different expression and/or feelings.

"woman in red uniform", 2007
douglas fir, painted
170.0 x 24.5 x 24.5 cm
© Stephan Balkenhol

So do you intentionally choose ordinary clothes and/or expression?

Yes, however, there is some escape to that. Like seen in “woman in red uniform,” I also like the ludic approaches sometimes, like dressing the figures in special ways or putting them in disguise.

“woman in red uniform” is a great piece to accentuate the whole installation. Do you always mix different kinds of the works?

Yes, and I thought it might be good for this show especially because it is my first gallery show in Japan, so I wanted to present the varieties of sculptures I make and themes that I like.

This show is like a retrospective. Do you not make animal sculptures anymore?

I still do sometimes but not for this show. If there would had been another room, maybe I would have filled with animals (LOL).

Does the anonymity and the animals relate?

Animal is another thing… For my work and for this show, I don't think it's good to focus only on men; a homocentric view of seeing things. I want to look at the world around, like nature or animal. But perhaps it is possible that we have a tendency to project human things to animals, like we say ‘lions are proud’ and ‘snakes are mean’ or whatever. Such idioms are human characters being projected onto animals, and perhaps we subconsciously disguise ourselves to switch roles ( LOL). In my mind, animals are something in-between.
In a way my animal sculptures are portraits, on the other hand it represents the way I see animals and how I feel about them in relation to the mankind. It is a question of ‘do I understand the animals' or ‘do I fear them.’ Especially in my series, the ones with a man and animals, I see it as a mixture of affection and aggression. If there are a group of men and the lions, we don't know whether the men are playing with the lions, or if the lions are about to bite them or fight with them…or who knows if they are in love with each other (LOL). Maybe it is like in real life…making love is like a mixture between battle and affection.,

front : "figure (man)", 2007
poplar wood, painted with pedestal (pine wood)
242.0 x 62.0 x 42.5 cm

back : "man without trousers", 2007
douglas fir, painted
171.0 x 29.5 x 25.0 cm
© Stephan Balkenhol

I am interested in the distortion that is being created, especially in the relationship between the “man without trousers” and “figure (man).” You seem to distort the gallery space by putting “man without trousers” very far away and by placing relatively large “figure (man)” in front of it. Another level of distortion exists within the relief- how you create ‘positive space’ (the human figure), by negating material. I am interested in that kind of perceptional shift that you create within the work, plus how that is affecting spatially. Is that part of your existential interest of how we are all reminded of, I guess, the ‘negative space’ being ‘something’?

It is a very formal thing… It is an experiment I do in sculpture, and how it has an effect on our perception. For me it is important to make figures in a certain scale, a scale that is different from life-size. It would either be smaller or bigger than our height so the work is not like dummy figure. When you think someone is standing in the room, it becomes clear that it is a sculpture because of the difference in scale. Interesting part for me is that when we come across small or larger-than-life figure in a room, we tend to justify its scale in our mind.

"tall figure", 2007
poplar wood, painted with pedestal (pine wood)
264.5 x 100.0 x 52.0 cm
© Stephan Balkenhol

And what happens is that the smaller sculptures get much more important and monumental than the oversized ones. This “tall figure” is big; it has the physical presence. “man without trousers,” on the other hand, is small and it looks even smaller looking from here (the entrance of Gallery 1). When we focus things in distance, it is like looking through a telescope without the lenses. The image size remains the same, but the field of vision becomes smaller than before. Since the space around the sculpture shrinks, the image of figure expands and spreads significantly. So the relationship between the space and sculpture becomes more important as the size gets smaller.
I like this…central feeling that I get with the sculptures; going into a room and you see someone standing there and wonder what does it do with the space and myself; how the sculptures share the same space that you are in it.
As for the relief, it is a mixture between sculpture, drawing and painting. It is 3-dimensional and 2-dimensional simultaneously.