Raphaël Buedts : The Stairway to the Heart
before chiselling, cutting, chopping, gouging, notching, grooving, carving, splitting and cleaving. The sawing produces pillars and posts, stanchions and trunks that are dominant in the global compositions, although tipped, truncated and shifted. A subdued insolence is concealed in the saw cuts, gouges and scratches. Open ings and cavities allude to physical and mental pain. On the other hand, sculpting as a practice remedies the lasting doubt and the agonising self-torture. Sculpting demands a laborious autonomy and
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slowly and intensely evokes a sculpture with intimate, spiritual claims. Confrontation with the sculptures creates the im pression of unfathomability and independence. Despite the manhandling and the inimitable manipulations, Buedts is no self-proclaimed, nihilistic iconoclast. Instead of allowing himself to be swayed by the trends of the moment, he chooses a profession with centuriesold rules. Even if only to go against convention with an anarchistic, reckless love of work.
Stronk [Trunk], 2008 Potlood, krijt op ingrespapier / Pencil and chalk on Ingres paper, 45 x 64 cm Privécollectie / Private collection