Krijn de Koning

Krijn De Koning's lecture was a very interesting one because of the passion and depth of knowledge with which he spoke. I felt a sense that he really wanted to teach us something, he referred to artists and historical art movements that inspire him, and explained how they are still relevant. He described how it is important for him to understand his motivations and to ask meaningful questions "to really find out and question what reality is", how things work and what things are. I really enjoy it when people talk with this sincerity and curiosity about the world, and although de Koning's work may not appeal directly to my interests, hi mindset certainly did. The lecture also seemed to have more of a structure and a focus than many others I have seen, and it was as if he were a lecturer at the university trying to impart his own insight instead of just accompany us through slides of his career. This is an entirely positive observation - I like learning, and I liked how generous he was with his knowledge.

De Koning's relationship with architecture was really intriguing; I'd never really considered the difference between art and architecture, and didn't anticipate the main difference (as he said) to be that architects are tightly bound to budgets/contracts/sponsors/design trends where as artists are free to make without the obligation to justify everything they do to third parties. I was really quite in awe of some of the work he showed us because of its scale; particularly impressive were the two enormous installations pictured below, which intersected and transformed the spaces in a Dutch cathedral and a large forum in a French museum. I was surprised that he was able to make these works, which I assume involve an awful lot of risk assessments, money and opposition (I can't imagine British cathedrals allowing works like this). It was reassuring to hear how many commissions he had from places that wanted to work with contemporary artists and that were willing to accept his radical and ambitious proposals. I was talking to people after the lecture about how artists like him are quite intimidating - it feels like an impossible ambition to become successful enough to achieve such large and remarkable works.

Niuwe kerk, 2010

Vides pour un patio, 2011

De Koning moved on to talk about the museum of plaster casts he had curated in Lyon (pictured below). He described how the collection were not considered to have the same value as real sculptures, and he wanted to question the cliché of fake meaning bad (and truth meaning good). I was initially drawn to this piece because of it being a museum display, and because of the plaster casts being discarded and overlooked. De Koning spoke about consciously directing people's focus and manipulating how people view objects or artifacts, which is very relevant to my current work. "Attention creates value" he emphasised; something I think I have been exploring without acknowledging it in such a succinct way. Without the attention created by the gallery protocol and museum displays, my dust and contact lenses etc would remain as they are in the world, without attention or (perceived) value. "What are you trying to highlight?" he asked, "what do you want to show".I intend to return to these questions when I come to display work and make sure I have a focus and motivation in mind to instruct my decisions.

I began to notice throughout his talk that he refers to his works as if they are objects, which struck me as unusual because they appear to me more as installations or spaces. This had me questioning what the definition of an object is, and at what point does it become something other or something more abstract. One definition is "anything that is visible or tangible and is relatively stable in form", and another, "anything that may be apprehended intellectually" (both from dictionary.com). Perhaps a large, architectural work of sculpture changes from being an object to being a space depending on the viewer's relationship to it. De Koning mentioned that the way his work is perceived is fast and changeable because of its size and how one has to move around the space in order to experience it. In aerial and far-away shots of large sculptural works such as those of Anish Kapoor, it makes sense to describe the works as objects, but in reality I think they function in a very different way, enveloping a person and acting very much like architecture.

Musée des Moulages, Lyon, FR 2003