Rotterdam-based sculptor Jan Eric Visser (1962) is known for carefully creating challenging abstract sculptures from his personal everyday inorganic household waste. Thus he has been exploring an ecologically driven aesthetics respectful of earth’s resources and the cycle of nature and life from 1987. The alluring material presence of his works in terms of surface, colour, scale and shape is inextricably related to the ethics of their production. Visser’s art practice may be seen as a unique personal footprint, raising notions of consummation and transience, enigma and exigency, art and life. In an age of ever-increasing pace and distraction, his captivating sculptures offer a place for sustained perception and thought.
Working method
Visser’s practice is built on the co-creation with Matter. Thus, he does not dominate materials but engages with their inherent properties. As such the forms are hardly ever anticipated: the art object as it were emerges from the waste, presenting itself to the artist. Through trial and error, challenged by gravity and balance, joint efforts lead to sculptures that have a life size scale. During the process no glue, chemicals or pigments are added. Through time the innate properties of the materials disclose themselves allowing a sculpture to be made or not. The works explore the new domain of circularity and a new connection between man and matter.
Mystery
Visser’s works are hardly ever titled: the materials mostly authorize the work. The final sculptures stand as a silent testimony of nature’s circularity and the mystery of the omnipresent lifecycle. The artist considers waste to be “a metaphor for the inability of mankind to truly comprehend anything, otherwise he would not pollute his own nest.” Though the shapes may look vaguely familiar, they never lose their enigmatic character. Recognising the mystery of life and death may empower us and help us break free from mere consumerism.
Value
By making his inorganic household garbage his principle medium, the question of value is raised on a fundamental level. The conscientious labour Visser performs requires a form of discipline that verges on trance or meditation, but also propagates a survival strategy in which all matter is valued and considered. Or as the artist puts it himself: “Waste is a crime against Materiality and Nature”.
Concept
Developing the domain of sculpture, Matter is not used to illustrate a concept. Matter is the concept. Matter like Nature has transformative and regenerative power. Visser’s sculpture showcases the poetry of Matter: its presence, its transformative power and its mystery. Thus his oeuvre challenges contemporary understanding of matter and existence.
Outdoor projects
Exploring modern aesthetics at the interface of tradition and innovation Visser’s outdoor sculptures offer a platform for newly developed circular materials. Thus the artist realised a number of outdoor sculptures of a material called Aquadyne. This new material of recycled waste plastic, verified by University of Newcastle (UK), has micro- and macro pores that enable the rooting of plants: even vegetables may be grown on it. Similarly, he has been working together with Technical University Eindhoven (NL) from 2015 to create sculptures from a new type of concrete made of waste materials only. More over a photocatalytic mineral added to the concrete mix reduces air pollution degrading the small particles we breathe also known as nitrogen oxides.