Stephan Balkenhol
The sculptures of Stephan Balkenhol have a surprising quality. Is it because they gaze without seeing? Or because their posture is so timeless? They are present, but they never impose themselves. They are statues in the most solemn sense of the word. The artist has deliberately excluded emotion from their gesture and posture, so they could have an inner psychological life. Their appearance is characterised by classic, almost Egyptian features. These statues, carved in wood or modelled in cement, strike us with their peculiarity. In a room, they demand a spot, a place, a Stand-Ort, as much as they claim actual space. "What I find interesting is to use the pretext of making a figure, a head – that is, first, to state the theme – to make something that is concentrated and closed, that does not expect any applause from its environment, but that is present without making any claims on the spectator… I am concerned with the resistance offered to me by the theme and the material", says the sculptor.
Whether it is a figure of a lion, an equestrian statue, a male or a female figure, in the round or in relief inside half a tree trunk, Stephan Balkenhol always and explicitly offers the simultaneity of (sculptural) object value and (pictorial) representational value. This aiming for synthesis is central to the artist’s sculptural programme. In his work, object value and representational value are synchronous. The sculpture’s object value is the result of material reality, in which a train of events has led to its creation, while the representational value is an homage to the unattainable idea.
Iconography, in Balkenhol’s oeuvre, is not a direct function of its meaning. His iconography, in fact, is mainly a function of the function of sculpture. And that is where this oeuvre derives its meaning. The sculptures do not have a subservient function. They do not convey a message, nor do they personify anything: they are sufficient onto themselves.”
(Jo Coucke, Stephan Balkenhol, exh. cat., 1987, Deweer Art Gallery)