5 – 8 October 2023
SWAB Barcelona 2023
During SWAB Barcelona 2023 we will present a solo booth with work by Dutch artist Saar Scheerlings (Eindhoven, 1990).
Her artworks are transparent about how they are created. The making process is an important part of the final work. Her sculptures, talismans and collages 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.
Inspired by ethnographic collections in museums, textile crafts and building methods the work is a search for a sense of inspiration and meaning such as we know from ancient cultures and religious artifacts. It is as if the artist builds the material culture of a fictitious civilization. In doing so, Scheerlings looks at traditional ways of making. In contrast to the speed and technologization of today's society, her sculptures are a plea for craftsmanship and durability.
In the booth her signature talismans, sculptures and collages are featured. Draped over the walls she shows the patterns that are central to her creation process. The wall itself becomes a collage with paper and wooden elements that are also used to carry a new series of ceramic sculptures. On the floor of the booth two large talisman sculptures will be presented.
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.
More about Saar Scheerlings →