Wouter Klein Velderman. Squadron Me

About

The three reproductions of the first World War fighting planes that form the work Revolting Mass represent one of the first machines that could fight enemies from the sky. Eventhough these historical artifacts are already a hundred years old, they seem to be more relevant than ever. If you extend the timeline of these creatures of destruction to the present you’ll be facing many complex political situations all over the world where they are still being used. The contemporary air force industry runs from the Joint Strike Fighter program to unmanned aerial vehicals, also known as drones.

Klein Velderman puts an absurdist twist to these planes by bounding them to the columns of the gallery space with very old Japanese bondage techniques. This ambivalent action carries not only a gesture of violence but also shows the beauty of construction in relation to the initial deconstructive function of the planes.

Squadron Me shows a series of collages that are based on the drawings on the emblems that each pilot of an air force fighter squadron has sticked on his jacket. Together these works form a fictional timeline of squadrons from its very first beginning to the present.

This constructive side is also very much present in Now It Can Rain. It’s made of endlessly processed truck tarpaulin, all manually cut, twisted and sewn by following a strict method. Its industrial character contradicts with its valuable process of creation.

Wouter Klein Velederman (1979, Amsterdam) earned his MFA in 2009 from the Sandberg Institute after completing his studies at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, where he now teaches. Among other venues, his work has been shown at art events in public spaces, museums and galleries like Stedelijk Museum, Hertogenbosch, W139, Gimme Shelter Foundation, CBK Amsterdam, Kunstvereniging Diepenheim, Casa Testori, Milano, Centro per l’arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato. Klein Velderman is also a co-founder of the Beeld Hal Werk exhibit and KAFANA in Amsterdam, and he has collaborated with the Hungarian choreo- grapher Krisztina de Châtel in the performance UT (OET) with a series of sculptures.