source: hannesvanseverenbe

about hannes van severen

*1979 in Ghent, Belgium

Hannes Van Severen is an artist, working and living in Ghent, Belgium.

Hannes Van Severen makes the connection between reality and imagination in his work. The artist starts with an existing, everyday object, usually a piece of furniture, which he then transforms and changes. In this way, he deprives the object of its original functionality and allows its aesthetic value to prevail. As a result, the original usefulness of the everyday object no longer predominates, but his work nevertheless continues to be a visual reference to the original. With this paradoxical construction, Hannes Van Severen creates a fictitious world of images with alternative, intrinsic meanings and potential. The observer has to let go of the explanatory and allow his or her imagination to take flight. In combination with the personal experience of the observer, a richer dimension of the reality experienced will emerge with the new reading and interpretation of things that are apparently obvious. With this transformation, Van Severen wants to break down our recognition, to question the obviousness of our reality, and to show us the absurdity that surrounds us. Like the cubists and the surrealists, the artist divides into pieces and rearranges an existing reality, which means that he can be described as a saboteur of the obvious.

Stef Van Bellingen
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source: itsnicethat

The wardrobe is a tool often used in fiction to convey a sense of magic (Narnia), terror (The Others) or even a time travelling portal (Time Bandits). Artist and sculptor Hannes Van Severen is joining the ranks of creatives who have been inspired by this ubiquitous bedroom object, and has transformed a collection of wooden wardrobes into fantasy objects. Hannes says of his work that he “deprives the object of its original functionality and allows its aesthetic value to prevail.” In order to really feel what he’s making, you’ve got to let your mind go and allow him to reintroduce this object we know so well as something entirely different.

His penchant for furniture continues with his moonlighting job as an excellent furniture designer in collaboration with Fien Muller which we wrote about earlier this year. Definitely worth a look!