Melt
Over the past few years, I have been working on a new installation of our project Melt in collaboration with my son and audiovisual artist Victor Dissel (@victordissel). It was showcased at the LUX light festival in Helsinki in early January, and because temperatures remained below zero there, it can now return to the Netherlands.
With around 450,000 enthusiastic visitors, we can confidently say it was a successful and inspiring adventure.
The project is rooted in my photo series, in which I use different layers of ice to capture the ‘melting process’—a symbol of letting go, softening, and embracing change. Victor’s interpretation was to translate these introspective photographs into a visceral, multi-sensory experience for public space.
Together, we created a monumental ice block weighing 1,800 kilograms, enclosing a two-sided photograph of a woman’s silhouette, partially covered with an ice layer already within the print itself. She is, in a way, unveiled by the ice.
The installation is illuminated from below and accompanied by a sound composition that amplifies the many sounds hidden within this seemingly still material. We deliberately chose clear ice this time, unlike our first Melt sculpture in Haamstede during Kunstschouw, where it melted within four days last summer. That ice was opaque white, so the photograph wasn’t immediately visible.
The soundscape was composed by Victor and his intern Jim Dermoïs (@jim.dermoïs), who experimented with frozen microphones and foley to explore the auditory language of ice from subtle cracking and creaking to deep, almost singing tones.
We were fascinated to learn that in Finnish culture, when people hear the ice on a lake start to “sing,” it signals that spring is approaching. This raised the question: could light and spatial art play a similar role in urban environments? In Helsinki, to our initial alarm, cracks formed on part of the ice block’s surface due to the extreme temperature difference. But this ended up adding a beautiful effect, much like all the handprints visitors left on the massive ice block a true merging of art and audience.
After a long journey, Melt returns to our hometown of Amersfoort at De Nieuwe Stad on Friday, January 16. Experience the melting process at @denieuwestad033 before it’s too late. We expect the sculpture to melt away within a week. Once again, we await what will happen to the piece, but melt it will reminding us of transience and the release of control. Beautiful things can emerge from the melting process.
With thanks to @juharouhikoski and the crew of @luxhelsinki, and of course our wonderful intern Jim. @denieuwestad
read the interview article; https://www.nieuwsplein33.nl/nieuws/3993540/1800-kilo-vergankelijke-kunst-vader-en-zoon-dissel-geven-zich-met-smelt-over-aan-moeder-natuur
