Arne Quinze
WORDS BY ROY B. HENRY PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF THE ARTIST PAGE 75 BIZARRE SPACES AT MARTA HERFORD MUSEUM PAGE 76.77 CAIRO INSTALLATION PAGE 78.79 UCHRONIA IN THE NEVADA DESERT PAGE 81.82.83 OASIS SCULPTURE FOR NOOR RIYADH STARRING @ARNEQUINZE WWW.ARNEQUINZE.COM SINT-MARTENS-LATEM BELGIUM
Light, colour, nature, life, diversity, beauty, proportion or balance are some of the words we can use to define the work of Belgian artist Arne Quinze, who, among other artistic disciplines, stands out for his monumental sculptures in public spaces, where he aims to return nature to the place where it has been forgotten, generate interaction and dialogue between viewers and encourage them to restore the balance between culture and nature.
For the creation of his public art installations and sculptures, Quinze draws inspiration from the abundance of shapes and colours found in the garden of more than 70,000 flowers and plants that he tends and enjoys around his studio. The perfectly balanced diversity of shapes and light that the artist sees there throughout the seasons serves as an inexhaustible experience and source of creation for his projects, playing with proportions while reflecting the fragility and resilience of nature.
“Our cities can learn a lot from the diversity of nature. It is a crucial time to bring colour and nature back into our society.”
Proof of this is the sculpture, or rather light installation, Oasis, which the artist inaugurated last November in the middle of the Riyadh desert. According to the artist himself, this installation embodies his own ideology of an oasis in the desert; a vibrant place in the arid desert where life comes alive. It is a place where the artist intends to immerse himself in the unbridled beauty and diversity of nature.
Personally, I always find the idea of bringing the small to the big, or the big to the small, attractive, playing with proportions and giving the viewer different points of view, bringing the small details of a colourful garden into shapes that are equivalent in size to how they would appear to the inhabitants of the garden. Looking at something out of its normal proportions makes you consider your own existence from another point of view. This is the strength of Quinze’s work.
The best way to get to know an artist is to observe their work. What do you think about that?
The best way to understand an artist is to find his story. To scrutinise his history and crawl into the artist’s motivations and thoughts. To try to find his/her story, history, motivations, to crawl into the artist’s thought process, but most importantly, what is the purpose or what does the artist want to achieve with his artwork.
For me, your works try to capture the infinite force of nature. Would you agree with that?
Indeed, with my artworks, I try to convey the power, diversity and beauty of nature.
In my paintings, you can see the frivolous painting strokes combined with the thick layers of paint. In my sculptures, you can recognise the elegant forms of nature in its brutality. Both force in fragility and fragility in the force of nature is something I always strive to express.
Tell us a little about your beginnings in the art world.
I have always been making small installations since I could remember. This used to be with anything I could find in the garden: branches, mud, leaves, etc. Later this changed to clay and so this started to evolve. I have never known myself to be anything other than constantly creating.
What is more interesting for you, the original idea, the process or the completion and seeing the finished work?
Well, one phase cannot exist without the other. For me, research (sometimes taking years) is as important as the end result. One finished work is often a story to a project that is starting.
There is usually a turning point in an artist’s life that motivates them to do what they do in their work. Do you remember any particular point in your life in terms of this?
Every day when I see the sun rise in my garden, I learn to look again at the beauty of nature. Thus, I am constantly stimulated to create. In the 90s, I saw a film called Microcosmos that touched me deeply. In this film, it was the first time they filmed the world from the perspective of insects. It made you see nature in a more paradisiacal way than ever before. As humans, we are always trying to control nature, cut it down, meanwhile there is a whole world down there. With my large installations, like Oasis for Noor Riyadh, I want to make people feel submissive to nature again. In this way, I want to show them again how beautiful, big and diverse the beautiful nature around us is, and encourage them to bring nature back into their lives. When I stand under Oasis, it is a flashback to the time when I lay in the garden with my back on the ground in the grass, admiring and inspecting nature above.
Tell us about your creative process and the importance of colour to you.
Everything starts in my garden when I am planting my flowers and plants. I already have about 70,000 flowers and plants around my studio. I really get my inspiration from my garden, it is my laboratory, all four seasons of the year. The whole process of the plant is important to me, and equally beautiful. Similarly, I really cherish Mono No Aware, the beauty in decay. Colour has always been very important to me. When I moved to Brussels from the countryside, I was so disenchanted with the grey, mineral city. So from the age of 14, I started to give the city some colour with graffiti, and later with my public installations. Colour is inspiring, it gives us energy.
What do you spend your free time doing when you are not working?
Creating.
In terms of your creative process, how do you think it has changed in recent years?
It is constantly evolving, every day I start again from scratch, returning to that quest and opening up to new developments, digging deeper every day and revisiting limits. Breaking through the walls of limits. It is a constant evolution. Every day restarts from now. Returning to that quest, opening up to new developments and revisiting limits. For me, every day is about breaking through the walls of limits.
Is there a quote from an illustrious thinker, philosopher or artist that you identify with?
Life’s greatest risk is living without risk. It’s an old French saying that keeps me going. And otherwise: “The richness I achieve comes from nature, the source of my inspiration”, a quote from Claude Monet, who is a huge inspiration to me.
