The skin, as a membrane that separates us from the world.

The skin, the house, the city, the world as a membrane...

Tinka Pittoors' sculptures and objects arise out of this concept and examine the utopia of a world that can be moulded. By combining recognisable forms and materials with new ones, Pittoors tries to create a language of form all her own, engrafted onto the one we know, and is in search of a parallel sculptural reality. Whereas the materials seek to connect with reality, the form actually reacts against it. This gives rise to an ambiguous image that balances on the verge of reality. The rift between nature and culture, as well as the obsession with the skin, are the points from which the sense of this double reality is explored.

At Young Artists 2007 Tinka Pittoors shows a group of sculptures and a photo that has been enlarged to make a banner. Worldenlargements (2005/06) consists of a series of photographs of small landscapes. She here shows one of these landscapes, in dialogue with the botanical gardens. The immense change of scale comes across as confusing and misleading. The objects shown appear familiar, but the whole thing seems strange. The photo looks charming, with its clear bleu background and fresh green grass. It lures us into the world of advertising and 'forced' happiness purveyed by the film industry and lifestyle magazines. Everything that has a nasty smell about it is papered over and thus starts to ferment even more. Domestic scenes and ultra-Flemish brickwork erect a facade of 'good fortune' in front of the spectator. But do we really feel at home in this seemingly homely setting?

Domestic Mountains consists of a series of mountain sculptures that bring us face to face with banal, everyday things. The mountains are thrust upon us as individuals. The sculptures are striking for the repeated forms and recurring patterns with which they seem to screen themselves off, and are often literally enveloped in nylon, towels and curtain rings. Pittoors to bring about a certain 'still' interaction between the sculptures, using contrasting and often fragile materials.

2007-05 Young Artists selected by Dirk Pauwels

text by Mieke Mels