Alice Vanderschoot

(b. 1989), lives and works in Bruges, Belgium

Intrigued by everyday visual language Alice Vanderschoot’s work explores the identity of visual communication in contemporary and fast moving popular environments. The objects come to place by breaking down a vast amount of images as an archaeologist would dig a site, isolating and cataloging each relevant piece.

Vanderschoot takes everyday objects out of context and puts them in a field of tension between figurative imagery and abstraction. Their bright and playful colors bring a certain softness and naivety with them that often contrast with the cold, linear steel constructions supporting the work. The sculptures originate from lost symbols, iconography and Vanderschoot’s direct environment for example depicting a large pastel blue waffle, a salmon pink lacquered duck or a series of playing cards. Archetypal objects such as a so-called caveman’s bat, an ancient Greek beard are depicted in a deceitful cartoonish way.

Vanderschoot questions the authenticity, meaning and origin of everyday objects, which we often take for granted. She attempts to appropriate the collective character of present formal language, including its lack of identity, creating a whole new, colorful and playful reality.