Exploring the space a sculpture occupies, Lucas Mergler started with the human body. Or, to be more precise, his own body. He wonders what shapes it occupies when he is sleeping and lying down. Making an imprint in a bed, the intimate image of a body surrounded by wrinkled sheets is left behind. These works led to Mergler sculptures of the body in ultimate rest; dead. The results are shapes reminiscent of a coffin or sarcophagus, carried out in various materials like lead, foam and ceramics.
Mergler researches the relation between negative and positive space, making this visible in showing the imprint a body leaves behind and the sarcophagus a body itself is ultimately left behind. He wonders how far he can abstract an image, without losing the suggestion of the human form. Merglers research is visible in the broad variety of used materials and life-size proportions. With each sculpture, he challenges himself to learn new techniques. The hard work could not be a bigger contrast to the stillness of the resting bodies and the shapes of people sleeping on the floor.
Text by Milou Terpstra, May 2022
EXHIBITIONS
Past
2023 Season Highlights |Group Show| Kunstpodium T, Tilburg
2023 Rondom het Fort |Group show|Fort Maarsseveen, Maarssen
2023 Spatial crossovers |Group show| Grote Kerk, Naarden Vesting
2023 Sprouts |Group Show| Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam
2023 EXbunker |Solo Show| EXbunker, Utrecht
2023 Delft Art Sale |Group Show| Sigarenfabriek, Delft
2023 Kunstpodium T, A/M #3 | Einfühlung / ashes / mouth / void / mania / ssssshhh |Group Show| Omstand, Arnhem
2022 SBK Sprouts Young Talents |Group Show| SBK Amsterdam KNSM, Amsterdam
2022 Fresh Cacao |Group Show| Cacao Fabriek, Helmond
2022 Exposure Fine Art HKU |Afstudeerexpositie| Pastoe Fabriek, Utrecht
2020 Skidmark |Group show| Straatweg 220, Breukelen
EDUCATION
2018-2022 Bachelor of Fine Art, Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht