User:PaxiMaxi/Jan Eric Visser

Jan Eric Visser (Leeuwarden, 22 juni 1962) is a Dutch sculptor, based in Rotterdam.

Early life and education
Jan Eric Visser was born in Leeuwarden in the North of The Netherlands. When he was three years old the family moved to Apeldoorn where he grew up. The surrounding woods and related paper industry of Apeldoorn were to become an important source of inspiration for his later work. The carless Sundays of Visser's youth and the report of the Club of Rome titled 'The Limits to Growth' made him aware of the potentially harmful consequences of consumer society at a very early age. Visser studied at the Art Academy in Kampen and Rotterdam.

Work
Visser has been using his personal inorganic household refuse as his principle medium to create sculpture since 1989, ,thereby propagating a survival strategy in which everything is valued. From 2008 Visser refers to this process as 'Form Follows Garbage', humourously challenging the Form follows function principle of the 20th century. For his outdoor works Visser experiments with innovative circular materials.

Mining his own garbage bag, Jan Eric Visser connects waste to climate change. Thus, the artist claims that waste and climate change are interrelated as they both result from a fossil fuel oriented society. He also supports the idea that a more circular economy will help alleviate climate issues as mining for new raw materials and transporting them goes hand in hand with massive CO2 emmissions, not to mention the production and distribution of new products.

Recurring theme in Visser's work is the mystery that he tries to give shape in his work and make tangible. He sees waste as a metaphor for human inability to comprehend and relate to the vulnerable life cycle.

Exhibitions
Jan Eric Visser's work was shown e.g. by Museum Aalst (B), Museum Bochum (DE), RAM Galerie Rotterdam, Museum 21_21 Design Sight Tokyo (JP), Design Museum Holon (IL), Verbeke Foundation Kemzeke (B), Museo de Casa Brasileira Sao Paulo (BR), Museum Rijswijk, Gorcums Museum, Galerie Art Affairs Amsterdam, MOTI museum Breda, Museum Artipelag Stockholm (SE), CODA Museum Apeldoorn, GroundWork Gallery King’s Lynn (GB), L’étrangère Gallery Londen (GB), Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Art R’dam, TENT Rotterdam, LUMC Galerie Leiden.

His work has been included in numerous collection such as: Aegon Art Collection, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Hogeschool Rotterdam, Stad Aalst, Stad Gorinchem, Verbeke Foundation, Stad Elblag (PL).