Liquid Grounds is a multidisciplinary artwork composed of a series of glass objects and a silent video film. It offers a micro-perspective on themes of belonging and dwelling, rooted in the notion of “ground.”
The glass objects are cast from sections of an old wooden floor from my former home in Amsterdam North—an area deeply impacted by ongoing gentrification. These objects vary in size, with mostly round, organic shapes. When viewed, much like peering through a glass paperweight or camera lens, the underside reveals the relief of the floor—a fossil-like imprint of a domestic space. Acting as a miniature museum of sorts, these imprints encapsulate traces of life tied to a specific place and time. In this way, the glass becomes both an artifact and a lens through which its own history can be observed.
Liquid Groundss serves as a poetic document, reflecting on our increasingly unstable foundations in the face of economic and social challenges. The glass objects are displayed on a large rectangular styrofoam buoy that has been transformed into a lightbox, amplifying their ethereal presence and their connection to both land and water. Resting on a styrofoam buoy, the glass objects resemble sea creatures clinging to the surface, as though they’ve journeyed across waters from Amsterdam North to Seoul. This connection evokes the area‘s past as a home for workers in the shipbuilding industry, which thrived until 1984.
video stills
making silicon molds of wooden floor at my home in Amsterdam Noord
silicon molds of wooden floor, home Amsterdam Noord
silicon molds of wooden floor, home Amsterdam Noord
silicon molds of wooden floor, home Amsterdam Noord
silicon molds of wooden floor, home Amsterdam Noord
silicon molds of wooden floor, home Amsterdam Noord
silicon molds of wooden floor, home Amsterdam Noord
silicon molds of wooden floor, home Amsterdam Noord
silicon molds of wooden floor, home Amsterdam Noord
silicon molds of wooden floor, home Amsterdam Noord
silicon molds of wooden floor, home Amsterdam Noord
silicon molds of wooden floor, home Amsterdam Noord
silicon molds of wooden floor, home Amsterdam Noord
silicon molds of wooden floor, home Amsterdam Noord
