poetic stories of aluminium 

Jonathan van Doornum often makes his works from aluminium. Cold material that Van Doornum imbues with a soft, narrative power by shaping it, into flames, curls or bows, for example. His visual language is influenced by both ancient, ceremonial objects and the most contemporary techniques. In this way, Van Doornum makes visible a poetic world in which past, present and future exist simultaneously. Changing relationships run through it like a thread.

Our mutual ways of making contact have changed considerably over the past century. Spirituality, religion and tradition have largely disappeared from our daily existence, leaving voids that are being filled by technical inventions. This automatically causes our living environment to become increasingly functional, stripped of the splendour we know from churches or medieval architecture. Instead of meeting places, 5G masts are springing up. Van Doornum's futuristic-looking sculptures reflect this; by combining digital aesthetics with ornamental details, his sculptures seem to radiate signals from different times. His work can thus be seen as a countermovement against our digital revolution, or as a call to connect in other or new ways.  

city and countryside

In his most recent work, Van Doornum focuses mainly on the relationship between city and countryside. A maker from Zwolle and born into a rural community, Van Doornum understands that urban areas are traditionally often viewed from the countryside with a mixture of displeasure and envy. That opposition between centre and periphery is centuries old, although the past elections show that this relationship is shifting. 

Many of the forms and motifs encountered in the countryside Van Doornum incorporates in his latest works. To this end, he weaves familiar rural elements into his sculptures while giving them different connotations. For instance, with a plough with hands that appear to belong to office workers, he responds to the sentiment of the countryside towards the city and vice versa. Here, Van Doornum is concerned with connecting places that are instinctively miles apart. For Van Doornum, the antenna, a device that connects places at a distance, is an important link between city and countryside: how can these two worlds come closer together, and what can they learn from each other in the process?

Meet the artist

Jonathan van Doornum (1987, Mariënberg, NL) lives and works in Zwolle. He obtained his Bachelor of Fine Art from ArtEZ in Zwolle and then participated in several residencies in Europe, including at the Rijksakademie Amsterdam and Wiels in Brussels. His work was shown in several group exhibitions, including Roosen & Guests (2023) at Kasteel het Nijenhuis. Van Doornum had several solo presentations, including at Kunstvereniging Diepenheim, Wiels in Brussels (BE) and most recently at SecondRoom in Antwerp (BE). Dark There, Joyful Here is his first museum solo exhibition, as part of the Fundatie Future Factory, the laboratory of Museum de Fundatie. Here, multidisciplinary makers explore the heartbeat of time. What themes define the future?