Stefan de Beer [art + architecture]: Artwork 2012

A cross section of my artwork in 2012 and 2013 for collectors, galleries, exhibitions and several modern art museums. This blog still contains just part of the works I produced in this period, I'm updating the blog.

Artist statement:

My body of conceptual work originates from a fascination with technology and machines and their impact on society. In my practice I incorporate the leftovers and waste of the mass produced materials and products that make our modern lives possible. It is a comment on the impact of production and consumption in the modern day of living and the fragile stability of a system.

"All my works are interconnected by recycling parts of earlier works into my new works. It’s like going back by time machine, altering and adjusting things, going forward to the present and see what the new outcome is and if it fits the situation of that moment better."

Regular updates of current and past projects!
For my latest project see http://steve-hyperform.blogspot.nl/

Also new in 2014: After a succesful series of gallery and museum exhibitions of smaller sculptures, start of my new project of limited series of exciting sculpture for under a 1000 USD.
For questions contact me at steve917@ziggo.nl

Follow me now on Twitter!
Daily updates on my latest work and projects.
https://twitter.com/steve917db

Happy Refinery
A critical portret, digitally constructed from close-ups of the Refinery_me sculpture. Giclee print, dim 120 x 82.

12 sep 2014: A limited series of 100 pcs, dim 100 x 68 cm, will be available at Darger HQ Gallery, Pasadena/Lincoln USA. Order at http://dargerhq.com/products/faceframe

Refinery_me
originally for A Portrait Apart, NYC, now in private collection.
Mixed media, 100 x 70 x 40 cm.

Refinery_me: identity taken over by technology and our ever stronger need for consumption.

the Refinery; our ever growing need for energy and consumption.

Unstable by design: Space frame no.6 - Display
Exhibition at Rietveld & Ruys at Gerrit Rietveld's former De Ploeg Factory.

A free standing frame on the old factory's last workbench.

De poten van het displayframe steunen op de open deurtjes en laden rondom en houden het frame los van het werkblad als kader voor de objecten die op het werkblad geplaatst worden.

Standing on the opened doors and drawers keeping the frame in balance and just clear of the top of the workbench. Framed air.

Basswind_120 installation
Interactive art installation for 'Canal Works' at Boscotondo Hall of modern art, Gemeentemuseum Helmond.

Just minutes after final testing at the museum.

A Co-creation between Noortje van den Eijnde (soundscape & art direction), Tim van Cromvoirt (light bellows) and me (overall design).

Basswind opening from Noortje van den Eijnde on Vimeo.

The Basswind installation is interactive, the museum's visitors can activate the five objects by pulling the levers. The objects will come to live, they breath and move and each object produces its own sound. Together the objects create an ever changing soundscape. A reference to the industrial past of this city.

Tim, http://www.timvancromvoirt.com/project/basswind-120/
Noortje, http://noralie.nl/?p=183

Unstable by design: Reactor no.2
A balancing act, private collection

'Unstable by design' series: Reactor no.2

Reactor no.2: the fine balance between push and pull.

Unstable by design: Space frames
Studies

Unstable by design: Consumanoid no.2
New York, private collection

Unstable by design: Reactor no.3
Exhibition with Ploegwerk at Gerrit Rietveld's former De Ploeg Factory.
Private collection

The workbench is a design from the mid-50's, by famous dutch designer Martin Visser and an essential part of the artwork.

Reactor no.4

Delectus
Exhibition at SOHO20 Chelsea Gallery, New York. Private collection.

Delectus: the 3d schematics of the choices
and factors that lead to success.

Delectus at the SOHO20 Chelsea Gallery exhibition 2013 in New York

Succesful women are different from men, they go beyond the traditional classifications of political and economic might. They use their senses, brain, heart and intuition in a unique way to actually shift our idea of clout and authority and transform the world in exhilarating and novel ways, a process of possibilities, recources, momentum and impact. I used this concept to create a 'successful head'. The connected elements of the successful woman.

Brand new me
For the 2012 Portrait Exhibition at Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam.

For a year I collected styrofoam packing materials from several city blocks and arranged them by timeline and location. This created a new model of the urban environment around me and ultimately of me.

a new City landscape created by comsumption dynamics

I found myself embedded in consumption dynamics

Our complex relationship with the city and the current shifting system of consumption.

Unstable by design: Cantilever no.4
Wood, urethane, dimensions approx. 200 x 200 cm

Some of my spatial constructions like the one above originate from the dualism of my former career as a racecar designer and my years of education at the Academy of Fine Art.

Unstable by design: Cantilever no.2
Wood, dimensions approx. 310 x 200 cm (h x w)
Light object, private collection NY

There is one small 20cm pullrod in this spaceframe construction that keeps everything from collapsing and perfectly in balance.

Unstable by design: Cantilever no.1
Wood, dimensions approx. 50 x 30 cm (h x w)

More to Less
The award winning More to Less Chair at Daring Design with the Netherlands' Institute of Architecture and manufacturer Gispen International.

Daring Design Exhibition - NAi Rotterdam
The Store Exhibition - The Hague
Gispen Factory Showroom - Culemborg
BKKC Art Center - Tilburg
Ploegwerk Exhibition - Bergeijk
Kunstroof Gallery - Breda
Majke Husstege Gallery (gallery of the year) - Den Bosch

The More to Less Chair was developed as a statement symbolising the excessive consumption of society and the need to find a more sustainable way of life.
To create a sustainable society we will have to find a way to go from more to less. Under the fat and comfortable layer, there is a constructive slim metal frame that partly shows itself. The fat layer is as a cover for the frame and can be removed by releasing the ropes which keep it attached to the frame.
Can we escape the current system of consumption?

Among the other eight exhibitors are Rem Koolhaas - OMA, Ai Weiwei, Hella Jongerius and Urbanus Architects.

Studio pictures by Paul Vermeulen & Photo40.

Deze stoel is in de kritische gedachte van de NAi-tentoonstelling Dwars Design (Daring Design) ontworpen. Het ontwerp staat symbool voor de overmatige consumptie van de maatschappij. Onder invloed van de crisis zullen we naar een duurzamere samenleving moeten, dus van More to Less. Deze stoel met twee gezichten is daar een uitdrukking van.

Onder de uitpuilende welvaart gaat een afgeslankte vorm schuil, juist dat deel dat belangrijk is en alles draagt. Ook zonder de opsmuk fungeert de Less-versie perfect, andersom is dat zeker niet het geval.

De vetlaag zit als een losse hoes over het frame en kan verwijderd worden als de touwen die alles bij elkaar houden worden losgemaakt. Het touw staat symbool van onze gebondenheid aan het huidige systeem van consumptie. Het zit letterlijk op ons gebonden.

Aan de achterzijde is een deel van de vetlaag weggelaten om een permanente blik op de Less-versie van de stoel te geven, zo ben je je dus altijd van beide zijden bewust.Aan de achterzijde van de stoel zie je dat de vetlaag gebonden zit op een ragfijne opengewerkte versie van de More or Less Chair van Gispen.

Het gelaste metalen frame is opgebouwd uit een combinatie van holle en massieve ronde buis van gerecycled staal. De kussens zijn gemaakt van zogenaamd Bio urethane foam, dat sinds kort ook wordt gebruikt in een aantal automodelen van bekende fabrikanten en dat geheel biologisch afbreekbaar is. De bio-urethaanlatex-huid van de kussens is gekleurd met natuurlijke pigmenten. Alles bij elkaar gebonden met henneptouw dat we met thee hebben gekleurd. Hierdoor zal bijna de gehele stoel recyclebaar zijn.

Op de NAi tentoonstelling Dwars Design is werk te zien van o.a. Rem Koolhaas - OMA, Ai Weiwei, Hella Jongerius en Urbanus Architects.

Foto's door Paul Vermeulen van Photo40.

The More to Less Chair is a co-creation with designer Willem Kuipers.

Levels of uniformity
From mass product to the unique.
Mixed media, 180 x 70 cm, private collection.