Bas van Wieringen -Everything is Something, Nothing is Something too

About

Through small interventions Bas van Wieringen tries to shift reality into surreal situations, creating a new perspective on everyday objects. His material exists out of day-to-day objects, like sockets, spirit levels, pencils and nails. He wants to encourage the viewer to observe, take a closer look at reality, sharpen perception to shine new light on the things we are familiar with. Pay attention to the things that are seemingly boring. A lot happens when nothing seems to be happening.

Bas van Wieringen tries to strip ordinary daily objects to their core meaning. Deconstruct or decontextualize them to play with their function/meaning and reconstruct it to a new autonomous image. Re-shaping, misplacing, doubling, accentuating, emphasizing everyday objects. Mostly the works are approached from a linguistic perspective. He sculpts the words into a new approach, wherein he finds paradoxes and contradictions.

“A paradox shows reality in its most pure form. It loosens what is stuck. It’s a way for me to understand the world. I feel comfortable in this way of perceiving the world, because it shows contradiction and conflict, but is not trying to choose sides. It creates a place to think and rethink, wonder and question, find possibilities in things that are stuck in their original place in reality. From this place I can start bending, let go of the objects functionality or emphasize its functionality. For me a work works when its makes sense in nonsense. When we can laugh about the absurdity, but take it seriously at the same time. I want the viewer to reconsider the situation by creating minimalistic interventions that are often humorous or/and poetic.”

Bas van Wieringen (b. 1983, NL) lives and works in Amsterdam. Bas graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in 2011. His work has been exhibited in The Netherlands and abroad, among de Hallen/Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem (NL), Institut für Kunst- pädagogik, Frankfurt (DE), Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam (NL), Fringe Arts Festival, Bath (UK), TENT, Rotterdam (NL) and Camden Arts Centre, London (UK).

With kind support by Gallery Color