Hendrik Vermeulen (1965, BE)

LANDSCHAP VOOR GEHEUGEN EN TOEKOMST (2022)

Hendrik Vermeulen enlisted residents from Watou and the surrounding villages, on either side of the Belgian-French border, to realise this work together. As if they were archaeologists, they made gypsum casts into the open ground of carrots, using these to assemble a carrot cluster, bound together with large steel gears. This cluster hangs in front of a paper curtain, on which are printed and pasted various opinions about the world. Are these nature’s roots jammed up by the gears of time? Or is it rather nature that is doing the obstructing? The tableau does not provide a definitive answer, but perhaps that answer lies in the amalgamation of various opposites.