Intangible, creeping growth processes are important in the work of Tanja
Smeets (Wijchen, 1963). Her amorphous sculptures lodge themselves in places
where they do not belong. She has a distinct preference for
out-of-the-ordinary and industrial materials. Polystyrene foam-rubber spheres,
polyurethane foam, foam strands, phosphorescent polyester, knotted plastic
wire, strands of Lycra and red and black lentils in nylon: in the hands of
Tanja Smeets they are transformed into sculptures that find a place for
themselves in our world like aliens. When placed in a building, these
good-natured structures conquer the space there in mysterious ways. They
infiltrate and then blend in with our everyday environment. This creates a
strange tension; in spite of its unchecked and disturbing growth, the
sculpture takes up a place where they almost naturally fit in. Like it has
always been there.
Tanja Smeets often works on commissions. In 2002 she used plastic oil tubing
to create a glossy blue fabric clinging to a tree like a parasite for the
Siegerpark in Amsterdam. In the same year she created eleven small sculptures
from phosphorescent polyester for De Doggerhoek, a penitentiary institution
for juveniles in Den Helder. Fingers, arms, ears and hands grow into lizards,
tails and entire landscapes that glow in the dark for 13 hours. She moulds the
same designs in ceramics, rubber and plain polyester too, using bright blue,
black, silver and lentil red as colours.
For the Food Inspection Department in Zwijndrecht she made a giant amorphous
growth consisting of hundreds of thousands of polystyrene foam balls in 2003.
This 8m high sculpture is a grey organism that penetrates through walls,
ceilings and floors.
For the Woeker exhibition in the new VHDG building in Leeuwarden she recently
cut up great lengths of different types of Lycra material and used the
resulting strips to develop new structures by stretching them into long
threads and knotting them into fabrics. The result is a dripping landscape of
vivid blue Lycra with embranchments on the floor that give you the feeling
that this landscape is capable of growing bigger and bigger and assuming new
forms in other places.
For DSM Tanja Smeets has designed a spatial object in the head office in
Heerlen that crawls across the concrete of the first floor like a red growth.
The sculpture, which was installed in November 2007, is made of red Lycra
pantyhose which the artist has filled with red lentils. It will take root at a
place where it does not belong but eventually, like all other works by Tanja
Smeets, it will exude a naturalness that makes you wonder whether it could
ever be anywhere else.
