Enigmatic Figures Are Frozen in Time in Hans Op de Beeck’s Lifelike, Monochromatic Sculptures

Seated on the floor with an arm resting on her knee, an exhausted boxer recovers from physical exertion in Hans Op de Beeck’s newest life-size sculpture, “Hélène.” Coated in the artist’s signature shade of gray, the work captures the interplay of light and shadow to reveal subtle folds of fabric, padding, and the figures’s physical features. “Op de Beeck has always paid special attention to the moment when we let go of our social roles and daily worries and surrender to a moment when we are nobody and nowhere for a while,” a statement says, “when we slip into the unknown of the subconscious.”

A range of dualities are at the core of Op de Beeck’s practice, such as wakefulness and sleep, motion and stillness, or life and death. “Danse Macabre,” for example, juxtaposes the playful, nostalgic motif of a baroque carousel with skull ornamentation and a spectral skeleton in a long dress, symbolically examining the cycle of life and relationships between the present and the past, vitality and mortality, and joy and horror.

Op de Beeck’s monumental sculptures (previously) often focus on a central, heroic figure, like “The Boatman” or “The Horseman,” below, which depict lithe, enigmatic figures who appear about to embark on adventures. Undergirding these depictions is a sense that, while the characters appear to be on the move, they are simultaneously frozen in time.

At the Biennale de Lyon in 2022, Op de Beeck’s immersive installation “We were the last to stay” invited viewers into an alternate reality containing the remnants of a mysterious, perhaps apocalyptic, event. Devoid of people, the scene is of a small community where residents may have sustained a simple way of life. Every surface is coated in gray, with chairs overturned and homes vacated. Visitors, inherently colorfully dressed and lively, activated the installation by highlighting stark contrasts between presence and absence.

Op de Beeck also references the tradition of vanitas, a genre of still-life painting popularized during the Dutch Golden Age that relied on symbolism to show the fleeting nature of life, the certainty of death, and the futility of pleasure, wealth, or glory. Nestled somewhere between reality, dreams, and imagined adventures, the artist leaves interpretations open: Has something happened to petrify the world? Will it always stay this way? As if turned to stone, “The Horseman” will eternally peer over his shoulder, just as “Hélène” will continue to rest.