Jan Eric Visser

Form Follows Garbage 

Rotterdam-based sculptor Jan Eric Visser (1962) is known for carefully creating challenging abstract sculptures from his personal everyday inorganic household waste. Thus he has been exploring an ecologically driven aesthetics respectful of earth’s resources and the cycle of nature and life from 1987. Aspiring for an artistic reconciliation between concept, matter and activism his oeuvre challenges our contemporary understanding of matter and existence. The alluring material presence of his works in terms of surface, colour, scale and shape is inextricably related to the ethics of their production. Visser’s art practice may be seen as a unique personal footprint, raising notions of consummation and transience, enigma and exigency, art and life. In an age of ever-increasing pace and distraction, his captivating sculptures offer a place for sustained perception and thought.

Working method

The sculptures are the result of a simple yet effective process, creating new shapes by assembling waste materials and wrapping them in waste paper pulp. Once impregnated with wax (i.e. votive candle residue) and softly polished, the objects take on a new identity. Though the forms are hardly ever anticipated, this working method opens the door widely to formal diversity. The garbage found in his bin or incidentally gathered outside is always the guiding principle and the art object as it were emerges from the waste, presenting itself to the artist. Jan Eric Visser likes to refer to this procedure as ‘Form Follows Garbage’. Trying hard to keep up with the pace of his bin filling up, Visser considers his sculptures 'stages' in a continuous process.

Human inability

Visser’s art arises from the artist’s awareness of human inability, literally grinding the words of newspaper reports and turning them into matter. The conscientious labour he performs requires a form of discipline that verges on trance or meditation. The grinding and application of waste paper pulp is both calming and ritual, but also propagates a survival strategy in which all matter is valued and considered. With every new form there is a new outlook on a new life. That is why he often presents his creations in unique self-made boxes or crates of retrieved wood that fit like a second skin. Full of care and respectfully like a Zen-buddhist at a new birth. 

Mystery

Visser’s works are never titled. Confronting the beholder with the unanswered question of life and death, his works stand as a silent testimony of nature’s circularity and the mystery of the omnipresent lifecycle. Thus he regards waste as “a metaphor for the inability of mankind to truly comprehend anything”. His work ideally goes beyond the domain of language, engaging with matters beyond the narrative of use. Though the shapes may look vaguely familiar, they never lose their enigmatic character.

Matter

Pursuing an ecological reconciliation between tradition and innovation, culture and nature, Jan Eric Visser envisages a post-industrial future in which resources will be cherished and no longer incinerated as ‘waste’. According to Visser visual art and life are all about materialization and tangibility. If you do not connect to matter you do not connect with the world around you. You keep life at a distance and make it abstract, conceptual or virtual. This collective inability of modern man to relate to the world as a physical entity, enfeebles him and turns him into a mere consumer.

Outdoor projects

Exploring modern aesthetics at the interface of tradition and innovation Visser’s outdoor sculptures offer a platform for newly developed recycling materials. Thus the artist realised a number of outdoor sculptures of assembled litter from the countryside covered in Aquadyne. This new material of recycled waste plastic, verified by University of Newcastle (UK), has micro- and macro pores that enable the rooting of plants: even vegetables may be grown on it! Similarly, he has been working together with Technical University Eindhoven (NL) from 2015 to create sculptures from a new type of concrete made of waste materials only. More over a photocatalytic mineral added to the concrete mix reduces air pollution degrading the small particles we breathe also known as nitrogen oxides.

Jan Eric Visser is a member Culture Declares Emergency and as a member of Gallery Climate Coalition he should like to make the following Environmental Responsibility Statement:

Environmental Responsibility Statement 

The world is facing a series of linked environmental crises. In October 2022, the UN warned that the world’s governments are not yet on track to keep global warming below 1,5 degrees. The window for action is rapidly closing. We are already seeing the impacts of existing warming with devastating droughts, storms and floods across the world. Related crises include collapsing biodiversity, dangerous levels of air pollution, plastic contamination and depletion of earth’s resources. Without urgent action from across society, these problems will rapidly escalate. 

The art world has an important role to play. Particularly in the Global North the art world has a large impact on the environment, due to a great deal of international travel, arts shipping, high energy use and waste of materials. In line with what science tell us the art world/we need to act to reduce our impacts. Moreover, we have the opportunity to use our public platform and cultural influence to help shifting the public debate. 

As an artist I have been transforming my personal inorganic household waste into autonomous sculpture for over 35 years, thus reducing my personal and artistic footprint. My works are based on a new proposition to create art without the use of virgin materials. Thus, I avoid the mining and transport of valuable resources which is highly polluting in terms of CO2 emissions. The same goes for the production and distribution of new materials and products. Also, valuable resources do not go to waste by incineration, but are preserved for future generations.

Yet, my artistic practice unfortunately also has some direct environmental impacts such as art shipping, energy use in my studio and car travel. I’m committed to tackling these issues by: 

- Joining Gallery Climate Coalition to reduce carbon emissions from a 2020 base line. Thus, I’m supported to monitor and calculate the carbon footprint of operations so that I can track progress.

- Continue to refuse international shipping by air.

- Use low or zero emissions vehicles for local transport by 2025.

- Find opportunities for renewable energy generation for my studio by 2025

- Continue zero-waste operations and communicate about it