In December KUNSTRAUM ZUG, is pleased to present the exhibition Specific Objects by Aldo Bakker. The exhibition features a collection of pouring vessels, displayed at the Kunstmuseum in The Hague in 2022, alongside larger objects in wood. By adding horizontal beams between the four main pillars, an installation arises in the center on which objects are displayed.
"The objects Aldo Bakker designs can be categorized as sculpture, furniture, and pouring vessels. For the last category Bakker uses the Dutch neologism schenkers. The verb schenken is an ambiguous word, meaning to pour, but also to give. The noun schenker, however, only refers to a person who gives, not to a vessel that pours. But pouring is giving. That suggests that Bakker's neologism schenker does not refer to run-of-the-mill vessels that pour water, oil, vinegar, or salt, but also to objects that give new forms to the world. Subsequently, also his sculptures and furniture are examples of new forms given to the world.
In Bakker's universe fascinating forms are never complex. But their lack of complexity does not mean that his forms are simple. These qualities are not opposed in the objects of Bakker. Take the pouring vessel AlinetoB from 2014. Its form is not complex in the sense that it is not composed; it consists of one fluent line. But as a line it is not at all simple, basic, or minimalist. As a form it is highly unexpected because completely different from forms we know. We know this kind of form perhaps as part of handwriting, but not in design objects. It is unrecognizable, new, and original in the sense that it is without origins. "
Ernst van Alphen, "Giving new forms to the world", 2022
