#NEWSLETTER April 2020

Let's dream together of the world of tomorrow.
Stay safe & healthy!

Nick

 

 

AGRIEBLOR, 2009 - 2019
print, marker, pastel pencil
60 × 75 cm
23.6 × 29.5 in.

detail AGRIEBLOR, 2009 - 2019

TechnoGaia, a call for a deeper level of consiciousness ...

In Nick Ervinck’s laboratory, a special concept of the human being has been prepared over the years, expressing itself along radical new artistic lines and using the most advanced technological 3D printing techniques.  Moreover, his recent projects MASK MUTATION, PLANT MUTATION and SKIN MUTATION focus on a double-sided challenge raised by transhumanist philosophy.

On the one hand, Ervinck created a series of MASKS whose ungraspable energetic lines debouched into feelings of cosmic indeterminacy, overcoming human limitations and turning the human species into the magnified gods of the future. Here he touches upon the apparently unstoppable and thus eternal urge of man to feel immortal, to be more than his banal self and thus to wear the mask of the greatest possible cosmic omnipotence.
On the other hand, in the PLANT MUTATION series he used his 3D experimental style to explore ideas of both organic and genetically engineered life forms,  launching a number of ethical questions that are not easy to resolve. When hybridization is carried out to the extreme, as in his Strawberry and Bell Pepper Series, an environmentalist concern covering major aspects of the survival of Gaia takes over, ending up in a waking up call to renew and reassume philosophical reflection.

As a multi-disciplinary project focusing on two dimensions, high esteem for technology and at the same time awe for some of its possible consequences, TechnoGaia (2020) invites the spectator to fully submerge in both the MASK and  PLANT mutation series and experience ongoing metamorphoses presented in an installation that refers to old labyrinthine spirals. As the history of Europe at many occasions revealed, the descent into Gaia’s spiritual caves, be it the physicality of Lascaux or the allegorical refinement of Plato’s cave, proved to be excellent occasions to express current anxieties and desires.

As an experimental event sharing ecological and ideological positions, TechnoGaia aims at stirring up human consciousness by developing sensitivities that might guide us in the human quest for a posthuman cosmic position. It is here that the artist meets the technician in their common desire to fully understand and exploit fluctuations and mutations of energy that might help man to enter into a more encompassing noosphere.
However, the beginning of 2020 will be known as the era in man’s history that focused the opposition between Techno and Gaia. A pandemic catastrophe often was part of the better SF genre until now, but could never affect man's firm belief in himself. It is therefore quite staggering to recall Ervinck's NOITATUM series (from 2013 on) and to refer to his aestheticization of processes of mutation and manipulation. Created in times when the anthropocene was considered iconic, his strawberry sculptures, blue in leaf, yellow in fruit, barely had the strenght to send their loud screams out into the world.

His SKIN mutations had already shown how skin and pelt spanned shrinking bodies and were caught in rhythmically severely disturbed respirations. In hindsight, you can say that the whole NOITEM series that arose then was the perfect form to represent the fear and panic that is now shared worldwide. The alienation and untouchability of the special Rorschach spots and the spatial cobwebs they created, perfect in symmetry, untouched in their appearance, now, a little less than a decade later, seem to have assumed prophetic forms to evoke the unknown global enemy. How deeply this cosmically powerful attacker will touch us is difficult to estimate at present, but fascinating and tremendous he surely is, and so is the whole NOITEM imagination.

In his quest for an aesthetics and tragedy that probe our era in depth, right down to the fibres of the SKIN products that we are all ourselves, the double world that Ervinck has invariably explored can provide a handhold for us all to feel included in his recent project TechnoGaia. His philosophical questioning and artistic design in any case force us to seek a new kind of consciousness that we can and must share with the entire world population, in an attempt to survive ourselves and life better than before.

Prof. Freddy Decreus.

work in progress
TANATIRIUB, 2017-2000
3D print (J750 stratasys)
49 x 28 x 20 cm
19,3 x 11 x 7,9 inches



work in progress
TANATIRIUB, 2017-2000
3D print (J750 stratasys)
49 x 28 x 20 cm
19,3 x 11 x 7,9 inches



work in progress
TANALITSUR , 2017-2000
3D print (J750 stratasys)
49 x 28 x 20 cm
19,3 x 11 x 7,9 inches



work in progress
TANALITSUR , 2017-2000
3D print (J750 stratasys)
49 x 28 x 20 cm
19,3 x 11 x 7,9 inches



detail of TANATIRIUB, 2017 - 2019
print

MORE INFO

 

exhibition concept 2018

Current and upcoming projects

About

NICK ERVINCK (°1981) is a contemporary artist from Lichtervelde, Belgium, whose work includes massive installations, handmade and 3D printed sculptures, ceramics, prints, drawings, computer graphics and animated films. Ervinck studied economics for a short time before switching to art. It was through his architecture and ceramics studies that he first discovered the extraordinary potential of computer design. In 2003, Ervinck graduated from KASK (Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Ghent) with a Master’s degree in Mixed Media. He taught himself computer modelling, sculpture and to work with materials such as polyester, plaster and wood. After teaching at art schools in Tielt, Menen and Kortrijk (2004-2012), Ervinck returned to KASK to spend three years as a guest professor. He has been the recipient of several grants: Prix Godecharle (2005), The Fortis Young Ones Award (2006), the Provincial prize for Fine Arts West Flanders (2006) and the Rodenbach Fonds Award (2008). In 2009, Ervinck received acclaim for WARSUBEC, a monumental project created for the cultural site Zebrastraat, in Ghent, and many public and private commissions followed, including EGNOABER, Emmen; IMAGROD, Ostend; REWAUTAL, Sotogrande; LUCE, Amersfoort; TSENABO, Tielt; and WIBIETOE, Anderlecht. In 2009, he moved to an old automobile workshop and transformed it into an artist’s studio. He founded Studio Nick Ervinck in 2011. In 2019, Ervinck was commissioned by the St. Petersburg city council (Florida) to create a public sculpture in bronze, OLNETOPIA. His work has been acquired by art collectors around the world and shown in solo and group exhibitions at Brakke Grond, Amsterdam; S.M.A.K., Ghent; GalloRomeins Museum, Tongeren; Museum Beelden aan Zee, Scheveningen; Museum Dr. Guislain, Ghent; UNArt Center, Shanghai; NRW-Forum, Düsseldorf; Ars Elektronica, Linz; Vanhaerents Art Collection, Brussels; Museum M, Leuven; the Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent; MARTa, Herford; Middelheimmuseum, Antwerp and MOCA, Shanghai. Today, he and his team continue to push the boundaries of various media, integrating classical techniques and materials with the latest 3D scanning, 3D printing and robot sculpture technology for projects all over the world. Nick Ervinck lives in Lichtervelde with his wife Kaat and their three children, Lene, Ida and Thor.

For inquiries on available artworks contact here