Tom Claassen (1964)
Have you ever tried feeling with your eyes? Or touching something that you couldn't, or shouldn't? A look at the work of Tom Claassen will stimulate the senses. Claassen, who divides his time between studios in the Netherlands and Denmark, has an amazing feel for the expressiveness of unconventional materials. Sometimes, Claassen takes his inspiration from the space for which the work is intended, as with the two giant figures he created for the departure hall at Pier D in Schiphol Airport (The Two Incredible Sitting Snowmen, 2001). Patiently they are waiting for a stroke, everybody may sit on their lap.
An important element of his sculptures is the skin, where material, form and content of the work come together. Claassen is fascinated by shapeless masses, and loves to play with contrasts like hard and soft or solid and liquid. Claassen's objects are simple in form, and recognisable: human figures, animals, a cake, a trolley cart. But appearances are deceiving. His statues look cuddly, melted or even liquid, but prove to be made of cold bronze, aluminium, or silicon rubber. Or concrete: since 1999, there has been a herd of life-size elephants along the A6 motorway between Almere and Lelystad.
An important element of his sculptures is the skin, where material, form and content of the work come together. Claassen is fascinated by shapeless masses, and loves to play with contrasts like hard and soft or solid and liquid. Claassen's objects are simple in form, and recognisable: human figures, animals, a cake, a trolley cart. But appearances are deceiving. His statues look cuddly, melted or even liquid, but prove to be made of cold bronze, aluminium, or silicon rubber. Or concrete: since 1999, there has been a herd of life-size elephants along the A6 motorway between Almere and Lelystad.
