Ensemble: Verlies en afwezigheid [Loss and Absence]
Characteristic for Jan Vercruysse is a strong sense of melancholy. Vercruysse's work seem empty and quiet. He robs archetypical objects like the piano, the fireplace and the chair of their function and consequently of their meaning. His sculptures can't be entered and don't interact with their environment. What remains is emptiness, absence; absence of a message, of meaning and of content. The absence of images similarly denotes absence. Vercruysse regularly shows empty canvases and constructions that would normally contain an image, but have now become image themselves. In this way, Vercruysse physically shapes the 'loss' of art and of the place of art in the world. At the same time, this emptiness also gives way to space to rethink the position of art in the world.
Works
![Kamer (III) [Chamber (III)]](https://s3.amazonaws.com/mhka_ensembles_production/assets/public/000/011/725/square_75/Vercruysse__Jan__Kamer_III__1985Heirman_Graphics.jpg?1343635565)
Kamer (III) [Chamber (III)], 1985
Jan Vercruysse
Installation, wood, mirror, neon lamp, 390 x 170 x 250 cm

Atopies (VIII), 1986
Jan Vercruysse
Installation, mahogany veneer on wood, steel, 396 x 380 x 30 cm

9 ontwerpen voor het omslag van een tijdschrift in 8+1 afleveringen, 1992
Jan Vercruysse
Print, paper

M (M1), 1992
Jan Vercruysse
Sculpture, wood, gypsum, blue glass, white pigment, 54 x 200 x 155 cm
Les Paroles (III), 1994
Jan Vercruysse
Sculpture, wood, iron, paint, 130 x 220 x 180 cm