Untitled (2012)
WOOD SCULPTURE
A staircase that has lost its function and become form. That's how Untitled could be described. In this work, Van Severen conceptualizes the thin line between autonomous and applied art, a line that also typifies his family history. He strips the staircase, which fascinates him formally, of its utilitarian function and arrives at an abstract sculpture based on its form. This sculpture can be considered at will as an autonomous work of art or as an invitation to the viewer to invent a new function for it. Hannes Van Severen himself likes to describe these works as 'sculptural furniture'.