Jan van Munster (1939)
For over forty years, Jan van Munster has remained true to the theme of energy. Using materials like granite and neon, Van Munster produces works about heat and cold, magnetism and radioactivity, light and electricity. Van Munster sees a cool, smooth material like granite as a miniature power station: this ancient form of stone stores within it the power of centuries of strata of earth bearing down atop one another.
In his work, Van Munster explores the extremes of the concept of energy, placing his sculptures under electrical current or extreme lighting, and freezing them or heating them to red-hot. The rational, scientific side of his work is reflected in the physical processes he incorporates into his pieces (which have included brain scans of the artist himself). In the metaphorical sense, energy represents life energy, vitality and the driving force of man and the universe. Van Munster charges the positive and negative poles of the concept of energy from both extremes, time and time again.
