Cave drawings of a tree (2013)
TEXTILE TAPE AND ALUMINUM TAPE
For one of his first exhibition projects, Stefaan Van Akoleyen reworked the walls of a museum room to scale using his own process with brightly colored tape. By transferring the line pattern of a piece of tree to the walls and taping it over, the room is disconnected from its original function and appears transformed into a cavern in which a prehistoric pop-art artist has gone to work. The natural lines are distorted into an abstract camouflage pattern in contrasting colors. Although optical illusions from nature and the ambiguity of images are sometimes tactically deployed to mislead or disguise, Van Akoleyen wants to use these patterns to just put the viewer on the trail of associations or feelings hidden in these natural drawings. In this way, these “cave drawings of a tree” also bring about a new dynamic.