Woven carpets

EYE-land


IJsseloog – the Island-Hole – can be imagined as a mythical territory, at the margins of the inhabited world. Infinitely deep, it obscures what civilization hides from itself.

IJsseloog (in English: the eye of the IJssel) is a two kilometre long industrial site built on an artificial, egg-shaped island situated in the Ketelmeer in The Netherlands. The perfectly circular lake in its centre serves as a dump for contaminated mud deposited by the Rhine River, then dredged from the nearby delta and transported to the IJsseloog for treatment.

'What interested me a lot was that animals have conquered their living territory on the island. While strolling on the island, I saw deers, foxes and sea eagles. The deers  presumably reached the island one winter when they crossed the frozen sea and could not return. On the island there is also a forest, which was not planted there, but it was nature that conquered the land for itself. At dawn the deers come out from between these trees, where they hide during the day. Suddenly the island is full with deers. The animals seem not to be scared of humans here, I have watched also foxes during the day, which were only slightly surprised to see that someone was hindering there.” 
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The presence of the animals on this island, as Robert Gschwantner recounts, is paradoxial, even enigmatic. It makes us think again on the power of nature that unequivocally and powerfully conquers with life, dead matter to itself.

IJselloog/13, 2014, PVC-tubes,
​seawater & sludge, mixed media, 50 x 40 cm

IJselloog/15, 2014, PVC-tubes,
​seawater & sludge, mixed media, 50 x 40 cm

IJselloog/17, 2014, PVC-tubes,
seawater & sludge, mixed media, 50 x 40 cm

IJselloog/7, 2014, PVC-tubes,
​seawater & sludge, mixed media, 50 x 40 cm

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IJselloog/16, 2014, PVC-tubes,
​seawater & sludge, mixed media, 50 x 40 cm

IJselloog/21, 2014, PVC-tubes,
​seawater & sludge, mixed media, 50 x 40 cm

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