Caves

 Posted by Rune on 03/05/2010
May 032010
 

The caves represent musings on architechture, a hybrid between vernacular and modern, romantic and rational.

They fill a need in me to make physical work – actually building something, even if it’s not meant to last – as well as a curiosity about how form follows function or vice versa. They allow me to test my enginering skills against natures forces – to remind me of the difference between constructing in space as opposed to digital 3d space.

They are sketches or questions still to be formulated…and they’re good fun to build.

Bergkerk Cave 2008

 Posted by Rune on 03/05/2008
May 032008
 

Another indoor Cave, this time constructed in the Bergkerk Cathedral in Deventer as part of a festival – www.de-kapitalist.nl
The Bergkerk is a gothic cathedral which serves as an exhibition space. It has no religious functions anymore and is therefore completely stripped of the usual furniture and decorations found in large cathedrals. The structure of the building is laid bare, in a way it’s a naked cathedral.The Cave I chose to construct here is based on the first designs I made of the Cave. The shape itself derived from a reduction of an outline of a typical cathedral. The Cave towers over you like a cathedral, yet it is heavy and feels very massive in its appearance – simultaneously reaching for the sky, yet remaining earthbound.The size, appr. 3.5mx3.5mx6.5m, presented me with a structural problem. It had to be sturdier than the previous caves I’d made. Also, I was not allowed to drill into the floor (for obvious reasons). This meant I had to develop a structure which would retain its shape, as well as stand fast, even when put under the considerable strain of the black foil.
Construction of the Bergkerk Cave

Solocave 2007

 Posted by Rune on 03/05/2007
May 032007
 
A sitespecific Cave with a new version of the Fire video to be constructed for the exhibition Focus & Diversity at the FMI, Groningen, in April 2007, curated by Martijn Schuppers.

Invitation
Images
Video (windows media, 25 mb)

The cavesin general are temporary constructions which are meant to puzzle the viewer as to their function and meaning.The SoloCave is the first indoor cave. It is also the first to incorporate a video. It was also the first I built without assistance. This forced me to work with the material in new ways and turned it into a very personal construction as well as the sturdiest so far. It measured appr. 4mx2mx1,8m. Upon entering, the only thing the viewer saw was a box to sit on by the entrance and the imagery of the video right in front of him. Inside it was completely dark and the seated viewer would focus completely on the image in front of him. He wasn’t able to see the monitor, only the small flame-like image in the middle of the screen. One viewer described it as entering ‘a diabolic tent and gazing at its fiery heart’. Others saw it as a version of the nomad’s tent and fire, quite literally translated to modern materials.
Construction of the SoloCave

Outdoor caves

 Posted by Rune on 02/05/2007
May 022007
 

The caves represent musings on architecture, a hybrid between vernacular and modern, romantic and rational.

They fill a need in me to make physical work – actually building something, even if it’s not meant to last – as well as a curiosity about how form follows function or vice versa. They allow me to test my engineering skills against natures forces – to remind me of the difference between constructing in space as opposed to digital 3d space.

They are sketches or questions still to be formulated…and they’re good fun to build.

Cathedral Cave, Rembrandtpark, Amsterdam 2006

Nomad Cave, Bellevue Beach, Copenhagen 2006

Village Cave, Ijmuiden 2006

Temple Cave, Amsterdams Bos, Amstelveen 2006

First Cave Plan

 Posted by Rune on 03/05/2006
May 032006
 
Synopsis of Cave installation

Ultimately reality exists only as projected light. We are stages on light’s path. The whole of technology is a late cult of the sun.”

Paul Virilio

The video installation Cave is an attempt to construct the Cave allegory from Plato’s ‘The Republic’.
The viewer is led into a closed space in which he is confronted with a large (8*8*4m) box structure. This is constructed of thick black felt hanging from the ceiling to the floor. Two corner-entrances in the ‘curtain’ are highlighted by spotlights. The viewer passes through either of these and enters the box. Inside there is no light except what seeps through the crevices in and above the curtain. In the center of the space there is a black house/cathedral/temple-like construction (6*3*4m, wooden structure covered in black cloth/felt). The structure has an entrance with a curtain at one end. Inside this structure the viewer is presented with a projection of the Fire video (projected on the far back wall, directly opposite of the entrance). The video consists of seven 2 minute fragments of stylized figures and actions. The video is shot in a manner which make the images appear as one could imagine the shadow images on the wall in the Cave appear to the prisoners in the original story.
The viewer thus finds himself in utter darkness in a cave-like setting trying to decipher and contextualize the flame/shadow images on the wall, just as the prisoners do.

Upon exiting he can easily backtrack but as he exits the final curtain he is blinded by the spotlight aimed at the point of exit from outside. This is a representation of the sun in Plato’s story, and causes the viewer to see ‘spots’ until his eyes accommodate to the light ‘outside’.

The installation is just as much about the viewer’s journey out of the cave and back to ‘the real world’ as it is concerned with the journey into and the experiences in the cave.