Geelen's sculptures are made from replicas of a variety of appliances: car
tires, vacuum cleaners, televisions, radios, telephones and computers. Other
sources of inspiration are dogs, deer antlers, a cow's skull, pigs, a tree and
the human body.
Guido Geelen's sculptures, which are made from fired clay in this exhibition,
represent traditional forms and functions of pottery. Geelen combines
traditional and industrial methods. Sometimes the sculptures are glazed;
sometimes he makes use of discarded industrial molds or transfers: a kind of
sticker which is used in earthenware factories to transfer images onto
pottery. Geelen attaches kitschy images of flowers, animals and ships to his
work and also uses Delft Blue tiles in his sculptures. At the end of the 1980s
he produced vases which were more reminiscent of the ancient Dutch tradition
of the Delft Blue tulip vase than the traditional flower vase.
A variation on this theme is vase sculptures in the shape of dogs lying on
their backs, with glass test-tubes projecting from their stomachs to hold
flowers. The dogs are modeled with expressive faces. Some of them look
cheerful, but at the same time they conjure up entirely different
associations. These sculptures are made from Limburg clay and are coated with
a platinum glaze which reflects the surroundings. Deer antlers, skulls of cows
and pigs, tree trunks and vase shapes are all given a new dimension with this
treatment.
In recent years Geelen has been working in bronze and aluminum as well as
clay. He makes casts of vacuum cleaners, urinals, telephones, washbasins, long
clay pipes and pieces of wood and then joins them together. The runners, which
would usually be sawn off after the molding process, are left intact, giving
an insight into the molding process and resulting in sculptures in bronze and
aluminum which appear to be conflicting and chaotic. Geelen also produces
life-size aluminum animals, cows, chickens and pigs, which are sometimes
covered in gold leaf. The runners are left intact here too.
In his recent work, "De Anatomische Les" [The Anatomy Lesson], a life-size
vase sculpture in the shape of the human body serves as a resonant reminder to
us all of our own mortality. Geelen put his fingers into the terracotta clay
and divided the human body up into the head, trunk, arms, lower abdomen, legs
and feet. Glass tubes to hold flowers project from the body parts, creating a
still life in both the literal and figurative sense.
Chaos and order, stillness and movement, the interplay between light and
shadow, the unexpected and the bizarre, simplicity and complexity, traditional
methods and industrialization combine in this red earthenware sculpture,
forming a natural union. In this way, Geelen succeeds in creating
three-dimensional pieces of work from fired clay which reveal a relationship
not only with traditional and modernistic conceptions of art but also with the
traditions of ceramics.
Guido Geelen lives and works in Tilburg. He trained at N.L.O. Tehatex and at
the Academie voor Beeldende Vorming [Academy of Fine Arts and Design]. In 2000
Guido Geelen was awarded the Dr A. H. Heineken Prize for Art for the
unorthodox way in which he has given the use of the traditional material clay
a modernizing momentum. His work is represented in many museums, and in
corporate and private collections. The Amsterdam City Museum, De Pont Museum
in Tilburg and the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam all exhibit his
work.
