Baptiste Debombourg
In this work, Aerial, Baptiste Debombourg makes an apocalyptic image that imitates what a room would look like after receiving a blast from the outside world. The work, made of broken glass, wood, nails and white paint, took over 420 hours to create and 2 tons of glass. This time and material intensive piece was a site-specific installation at the Abbey Brauweiler in Germany. Though the piece is awe-striking, Debombourg maintains that the piece is not about the materials or the physicality of the work. As he cites R. Martin Gard,
“The mind is everything. The material is the servant of spiritual.”
I would argue that the way that Debombourg combines the piece’s overwhelming physical presence and its conceptual framework is what makes the work so successful. It captures us but also moves us. This imitation and interpretation of reality would cause one to literally imagine and experience an apocalyptic moment. I feel extreme envy for anyone who has the lucky chance to see this work in person. For more of Debombourg’s work, click here.
