I make kinetic artworks and light installations, departing from an ongoing experimental research into materials, motion and mechanics. My work is 'aleatoric', or based in chance - I do not have full control over what happens in the work. I'm currently looking for a point where the physical sculpture and its projections intersect. Boundaries between the individual shapes and forms seem to dissappear.
An important starting point is the idea of a planetarium, a model of the cosmos. Endlessly variable, never the same. The motion is calm, smooth, natural. The motion in my works is physically the same kind of motion that produces music, or sound, in a musical instrument.
My background in (mechanical) engineering asserts itself in my practice, informing my methods and providing me with the necessary tools to produce what I have in mind. However, my work ultimately originates from curiosity and the desire to explore.
Motives/Motifs (solo exhibition) - Impression of my solo exhibition 'Motives/Motifs' shown at ART23 in Guangzhou, China in 2020.
“Motive is a word for movement, but also a reason for doing something, and also a motif, such as in music or in art. My ‘motives' are a series of works made during a three-month residency at ART23. The works in the series share a common form of locomotion: circular motion from an electric motor. From this simple starting point, different expressions of movement, sound, light and shadows emerged, by experimenting and playing with materials and objects that I made, found, bought or combined. I call the works ‘studies’, because I consider them part of a growing and evolving process rather than fixed and static end points.”
https://fwilbers.nl/motivesmotifs
Motive #7: Errory - A motive with reflective Plexiglas discs. A single motor at the top combined with carefully tuned dynamics produces complex ever-changing patterns of movement. Stage lighting produces shadows and reflections around the space.
The work was commissioned for The New Current in Rotterdam during Art Rotterdam Week 2020 and generously supported by CBK Rotterdam.
Errory (2020)
350 x 200 x 200 cm
https://fwilbers.nl/errory
Motive #9: Primaries - Three discs with primary colour combinations (Yellow/Blue; Magenta/Green; Cyan/Red) represent the additive (R/G/B) and subtractive (C/M/Y) colour mixing systems. And two acrylic discs with a microprism structure that reflects or refracts light rays, depending on viewing angle and light conditions. The optical interactions between the overlapping discs creates shapes and patterns that do not really exist. This one is intended to be viewed from the top - 'living' on the floor rather than on the ceiling. When moving, the work and its array of optical elements create complex visual patterns, that extend into the surrounding space. Primaries (2020) 250 x 200 x 200 cm
Motive #9: Primaries - Three discs with primary colour combinations (Yellow/Blue; Magenta/Green; Cyan/Red) represent the additive (R/G/B) and subtractive (C/M/Y) colour mixing systems.
And two acrylic discs with a microprism structure that reflects or refracts light rays, depending on viewing angle and light conditions. The optical interactions between the overlapping discs creates shapes and patterns that do not really exist.
This one is intended to be viewed from the top - 'living' on the floor rather than on the ceiling. When moving, the work and its array of optical elements create complex visual patterns, that extend into the surrounding space.
Primaries (2020)
250 x 200 x 200 cm
