Gestalt (2013)
MIXED TECHNIQUE
Gestalt is an installation with an old mirror and a sculpture in plaster - a child's head - as is often the case with Jan Van Oost painted black. One eye is closed, the other is made of glass and catches the light of a single spotlight above the sculpture. Once man sees the light of life, he also carries within him the announcement of suffering and death, metaphorically contained in the black, as it were charred head and the dialogue between the sculpture and space. The reflection emphasizes the inescapable - the doorway and the black hole into which the head seems to disappear. At the same time, it engages the viewer in this relationship, challenging him to face his own fundamental drive, referred to by Freud as “thanatos. A reference to psychology is also contained in the title. For example, gestalt psychology states that man develops as a whole, from encounter and in connection with his environment and fellow man. Similarly, the sculpture's relationship with its surroundings here provides a structural awareness of its own condition.