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Crossroads

Albert Pepermans

at Schönfeld Bar

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In the months of May and June, Albert Pepermans is taking over the Schönfeld Bar. He will be showing his Crossroads, an edition of three copies and two artist’s proofs. It is a sculpture – which in itself is unique for the almost exclusively two-dimensional artist – of a motif that has intrigued the painter for more than forty years already: the tower.

Crossroads is based on the intro Albert made in the 1980s for the much-watched VRT (Flemish Radio and Television) item Kunstzaken that was broadcast  right before the seven o’clock news and announced current exhibitions. For the intro, set to music by Walter Verdin, the artist made a painting of a tower with cars circulating upwards. A metaphor – later often used in his work – for ‘travelling, being on the road and the climax that is the final destination. A metaphor for the process of painting as well.’ The car symbolises freedom for Albert. As a child of the 1960s, he remembers the first American cars really well: ‘The beginning of a new era, of endless possibilities, and lots of fun.’

Based on this painting, Albert made an aluminium tower, adorned with jacks for cars. Thirty years later, this aluminium sculpture was scanned, moulded in clay using a 3D printer, and then fired. Each edition has its own colour: red, blue, and green. The artist modelled the cars himself using children’s clay.

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