Werner van der Zwan (1995, NL) is a Dutch artist living and working in Rotterdam.
In my practice, I focus on making kinetic installations and sculptures, made from discarded objects and other things that roam the streets. A chair found next to a container or a tree that fell over during the storm can become material. These entities are in an in-between phase, an undefined state between their original context in which they served a specific function, and the process of waste disposal, bringing them back to pulp. Between these worlds, a disruption takes place from utility and meaning. By de- and reconstructing, I try to give these entities a new life, not by restoring their old meaning, but by morphing them into kinetic sculptures with human-like characteristics.
By directing their movements carefully in performance, writing scripts based on gradient noise, and developing techniques in which a sculpture can be embodied using VR glasses, these Frankenstein-like creatures receive a new, artificial life. By giving stray objects human-like movements, I aim to create a certain access, with which the object can be perceived as ‘other’. In installation and theatrical performances, they become active members that seem to possess a certain degree of autonomy and desire. Aimless and awkward, with both comical and tragic undertones, I aim to evoke an emotional response in the audience by drawing them into the inner life of robotic beings.
The viewer is in a conflict. On the one hand, they empathize with the impaired object that performs repetitive, futile movements, and on the other hand, they see something that is recognizable and lifeless in which the mechanical intervention is in no way hidden. In this way, I explore how I can break open the dichotomy of subject and object and how a world can be imagined that is shared with non-human and non-living entities.
Collaboration is a integral part of my practice. Projects are often a mix of different disciplines, such as music, theatre, robotics and visual arts. Connections with new people and places inspire my practice. Sometimes I make work on location, where I respond to questions that arise in specific contexts.