Fred Eerdekens

Fred Eerdekens

When you were a child, do you remember having just your night light on and making funny shadows on your bedroom wall? Sometimes your fingers looked nothing like what came out on the wall! Well Fred Eederkens, a contemporary artist, works with new materials to create shadows; these shadows are special-it is almost as if he creates words out of nothing, he creates words out of holes and twisted material. I am happy to have come across this artist so I can have a chance to show you his great and unexpected art work. The mysterious objects are shown through his use of light; the light is clearly something he has gotten to know inside and out, and he is showing us what is hidden.

God-Ego, 1990
wood, 2 light projectors
18 X 18 X 10 cm

When you look at this strange linear piece of wood, you never imagine the words that it would spell. How Eederkens is able to do this I will never know, and I do not think I want to know; it would take away the wonder of it all if I knew how he was able to think about and construct these pieces. Some of the words that he creates from light emitting a shadow do not involve anything meaningful such as his Ooo, Ahh piece, or his mmmhhmm piece; this, however, obviously means something, and it could mean something different to each individual. To me, he might be saying that God has an ego! Sometimes his words are humorous and I think that here that humor might apply. In any case, it is clear that a lot of thought and work went into creating this piece.



'a very short story-with a lot of fiction in themiddle-and somthing real in the end', 2005
Copper Wire
94.5" X 6.25" X 3.875"



I literally laughed when I was able to read what the shadow says. I don’t know exactly why it struck my ‘funny bone’, but I think his humor and ability to manipulate and understand the words themselves is really pleasing. The copper contrasted with the light blue background works really well in this installation. The shadow even comes out dark blue which contrasts well with the light blue behind it. I think these words might reflect and say a lot about who Eerdekens is as a person, and I wish I could ask him personally where his choice of words came from here. The curvilinear quality of the object that is creating these shadows is interesting itself! If you can pay attention and look at just those, it keeps your eye moving along them, and it is even more amazing that they are able to create words.

life itself is nto enough, 1999
clothing, glass, steel, light projectors
700 X 120 X 90 cm

This is probably one of my most favorite shadows that he has done. I am not sure if the materials serve any purpose to the meaning behind the words, but the words themselves are pretty impactful. Life should be everything right? So what more is he saying that we need? This one perplexes me, but it seems most questioning, and I really enjoy that.

Fred Eerdekens is doing something different in this art world today. Yoko Ono, the blog I did previously, also works with words. It is a cool thing that words can become art in this day. I really like that Eerdekens objects that make the shadows are art pieces in themselves, and it is almost as if the object and the words and shadows and negative light spaces are one piece in itself.