Jaco van der Vaart - Lives and works in Delft, the Netherlands
2016 - 2020 Curator at Artcentre Kadmium/Prinsenkwartier, Delft
2004 Artist at Pulchri Studio, The Hague
1995 - 98 Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam
1993 - 95 Secondary Teacher Training Handicrafts, Rotterdam
About the work
There used to be a time when everything seemed interrelated; religion, arts and sciences were seamlessly integrated. Ever since the Enlightenment, we have split reality into increasingly elaborate disciplines.
There are advantages in categorising the world in this manner. It's a way to partly control the chaos; however, you lose something too. Jaco van der Vaart shows us that reality is not as neatly organised and static as our classifications like us to believe. His poetic sculptures express a continual movement, a transformation, showing us everything is connected naturally.
Van der Vaart is motivated by the human body and the powers of our intellect, and from 2010 onward, processes of transformation. In his sculptures, universal forms, parts of our material world and materiality itself forge new connections. He remains close to the literal intention of the materials. In 'First Governor' he has used sugar in reference to its function as fuel for the heart. Silicon rubber mimics the natural feel of the breast in 'Mother'.
Van der Vaart reminds us intuitively how beautiful and mysterious life is. Progressively transforming, full of unexpected unions and essentially intangible. Despite all our knowledge and categorising.