7 – 29 January 2023
Unfolding
After a successful duo exhibition at the gallery and a solo presentation at Art Rotterdam 2021, Saar Scheerlings (Eindhoven, 1990) returns to Galerie Fleur & Wouter. In the solo exhibition Unfolding, she takes us into her world. Her signature sculptures and talismans as well as new series in glass and paper are featured in a room-filling installation, draped like a canvas over the existing gallery space, turning our relationship with it upside down.
Joy of making
Saar Scheerlings' artworks are transparent about how they are created. The making process is an important part of the final work. Her sculptures, talismans and fold-outs show a process of revealing, concealing and transforming. She uses many different materials, media and crafts and a great joy of creating speaks from her artworks. She does not work towards a specific goal, but the making itself is the goal. Whatever works during the process, works.
"Like the joy of wrapping and opening a gift. The magical way seeds grow to meet the sun. The mapping of the world as we know it - and don't know it. The process of spinning wool into threads woven into fabric to wrap our bodies in or hoist masts for explorations." - Saar Scheerlings
We have to look at her works in the same way nature and culture are constantly evolving, which is why we can only make sense of them in retrospect. The works unfold like a map. They invite us to discover rather than know, to love rather than understand.
Constellation
Several series of works are on show in the gallery, presented within a map of lines across the walls, floor and plinths. Like a new layer laid over the existing situation. Ceramics, glass, textile works and unfolded paintings take position in this constellation, where the viewer is encouraged to make their own connections and associations.
Installation views
Artist
Saar Scheerlings
Born in Eindhoven in 1990, Saar Scheerlings embarked on her artistic journey after studying at the Design Academy Eindhoven and gaining experience as a chef and theater designer. Scheerlings mixes the disciplines of art, design and craft to find processes that give rise to new types and expressions. Her work includes large ceramic vessels that serve as painted maps, decanters that seem unwilling to pour, paintings that resemble fabrics and soft monumental sculptures. For her, a medium is not defined: she prefers to create her own playing field and associated rules. A great interest in daily life probably comes from her education in design, but she is not very interested in the way products are industrially designed, made and used. She prefers to see forms as intermediate phases of a creative process, a game, a tradition, a ritual, a culinary dish. It is the commitment to this process that gives objects meaning. Saars work is often triggered by the beauty and dedication of old materials like the antique linens she finds at garage sales in the French countryside where she lives. With a laborious process of sculpting, cutting, sewing and weaving she breathes new life into these materials, transforming them into her monumental talisman sculptures. Weaving is not only a technique for Saar, it is a metaphor for her entire work. She sees her oeuvre as an expanding structure. She not only creates work, she works on her own culture. The work of Saar Scheerlings has been shown in various international galleries and museums including CoBrA Museum, Design Museum Gent, Hanwha Galleria Seoul, Tripostal Lille, Galerie Fleur & Wouter, Valerius Gallery, HAGD Contemporary, De Nederlandsche Bank, Garage Rotterdam and at Palais de Tokyo, Paris, as a finalist for the prestigious Loewe Foundation Craft Prize.
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