Blossom Trees Series of sculptures, 2018. Concrete, Steel, Coating
Images
The gnarled, fairy-like trees refers to trees as they appear in traditional Japanese prints as well as Zen Buddhist gardens. Because this fragile tree appears to being permanently in bloom both summer and winter, it has a timeless and surreal character.
As is the case for many sculptural works by Op de Beeck, the sculpture was executed in a soft grey, almost velvet like shade, in this case combined with the naive pink of the cherry blossom tree.
With his stylistic choice for the use of just two colours, it is by no means Op de Beeck’s intention to painstakingly simulate a lifelike tree, but rather, to give an artistic interpretation of it, which fits within the artist’s oeuvre of creating visual fictions, evocations, made up of mostly monochrome grey human figures, objects, architecture and landscapes, that resonate life as we know it, in a most silent, frozen, seemingly petrified appearance.