Cas van Deurssen’s (1994) collage-like, sculptural murals are a culmination of the material experiments he carried out and his developments over the past year. Although these are hardly classical ‘paint-on-canvas’ works, the artist still used painting as his point of departure. The middle part, for instance, consists of a canvas stretcher, a self-imposed frame that he subsequently tries to break free from by using a wide variety of shapes and materials, like polyurethane foam, epoxy, and coloured foils, to extend the work to all sides.
Van Deurssen’s working method is process-based. Without using preliminary sketches, each step dictates the next. He finds inspiration in signs, pictograms, and colours in the public space, as well as in his other job, in construction. Sometimes working with the precision he needs as a welder, at other times he finds freedom in doing the exact opposite. At the same time he uses functional (building) materials that hover somewhere between art and everyday life. Van Deurssen: “I am intrigued whenever my work takes on an apparently functional appearance, because it suggests the possible presence of a hidden mechanism. The constant changes in everything we perceive today is reflected in the transformative nature of my work.”
For five billy boy B boy b b b b b (2023) he, for instance, stretched transparent foil over a canvas stretcher and randomly applied coloured rubber rings derived from glass containers. They evoke a sense of interaction, of playfulness, and are connected with personal memories and the sound of breaking glass.
Text: Esther Darley
Translation from Dutch to English: Marie Louise Schoondergang