Artospective: Sculpture Artist Nick Ervinck from Belgium.

NABEKIARTS

An Interview with Nick Ervinck.

Who and where are you from:

I am an artist born in 1981 in Belgium. Currently I have my own studio in Lichtervelde, Belgium. The focus of my work is digital prints, 3D prints and large polyester sculptures.

How you got into this?

I have always wanted to be an accountant, art was never a topic in our home, I never even visited a museum when I was younger. Play has always been there in my life. When I was very young, I played and built things with Lego blocks. Later, this turned into the virtual building blocks of a whole series of God games; computer games such as SimCity, Settlers, Traffic Tycoon and Caesar. I'm sure that this is how my understanding of computers came about. Architecture has always fascinated me, so it was my first choice when I switched to art school. But the lessons on perspective theory didn't interest me and the scale models I made were not always feasible because I wanted to go beyond what was being offered to me on the course. I switched to ceramics and graphic design. When I discovered software such as Photoshop, a whole new world opened up to me. I suddenly realised that you can do a lot more with a computer than just play games. I studied 3D multimedia at Ghent Academy. My focus was primarily on performance and video art then, and I played around with computer effects. But I didn't really find my way in this and so I switched to the Mixed Media course. There, I gradually found my feet.

What is you driving force?

Everything I do is about the freedom that I need to preserve in order to be able to create. you play God over the world that you've created yourself. You have complete control over the laws of nature. A few extra suns or trees raining out of the sky? Done. There are barely any limits and I find that fascinating. What I do as an artist, I do 24/7. It's my passion, it's the reason I get up in the morning. I actually see the computer as an extension of my body: an external hard drive in which I save all my images in order to create extra space in my head. I am constantly moving forward, expanding my oeuvre and reframing my concepts.

What kind of work you do and why?

The studio takes a vanguard position in the field of digital technology (such as 3D technology and computational design methods). My oeuvre has one foot firmly planted in the digital world. Using copy paste, and depending on the actual task and its context, I apply images, shapes and textures of extremely diverse origins. I create my own universe while simultaneously referencing both classical sculpture and contemporary pop culture. I explore the boundaries between various media, in order to explore the aesthetic potential of sculpture, 3D prints installation, architecture and design. Consequently, I am particularly interested in how the computer can be used in the realisation of new, organic and experimental (negative) spaces and sculptures within sculptures and how the tension between blobs and boxes is articulated during the digital designing process.