Karel's Sculptures
Looking for the mathematical phenomenon on the inside of the stone
dated 2003 until 2015
(click on an image to enlarge an artwork)
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Double Twist
2015Double twist in Marble,... The ball is formed by 4 spirals that turn around each other. The ring has a triangular profile and is twisted over 120 degrees thus giving a continuous surface like in a mobius strip. only in this case without sides.
The HandShake
2014The HandShake was made for the group "100 Machtige Handen" http://100machtigehanden.nl/ that originated from the initiative of "Serious Innovation" www.http://seriousinnovation.nl/ Those initiatives were sety up for "Serious Request" The sculpture "The HandShake" was sold during the auction of "Serious Request 2014" https://vimeo.com/114359536
Endless Twisting
2014Hidden Endless twisting
Crossing Twisted Rings in Marble
2013In February Karel got an assignment for another monumental sculpture to make in the sculpture park in India. This sculpture has been made as a proposal for u huge monumental sculpture with a diameter of 2.5 meters or more. Finally in India they rejected the proposal, so it has been sent to several other countries, now wait and see if they will invite me to negotiate on how it will be done.gotiate on how it will be done.
Rings in Rectangles
2013Like my other spiral sculptures this sculpture contains a spiral that returns trough the centre of the stone to connect with the spiral again on the other side, thus forming a closed loop. during the carving another ring appeared, it is the one that sustains the spiral.
Spiral Ring INDIA
2013Karel has been invited for the 2nd International Stone Sculpture Symposium 2013 in Baroda Vadodara India. In the period 1 to 24 February he made this monumental sculpture , a spiral that returns through the center of the stone thus forming a closed loop, an eternity symbol. The sculpture stays in India, beautiful memories will be taken home.
Marble Spiral Ring
2013This sculpture is a smaller version of the sculpture I made in India during the 2nd International Stone Sculpture Symposium in Baroda Vadodara. In the future I want it to have a prominent place in a Dutch Museum to make a virtual link between this smaller sculpture and the sculpture in India, using a Layar APP . During the Regionale Kunstdagen Amsterdam I have won the 2nd prize with this sculpture.
Red Brick Crossing Rings
2012In red brick 2 twisted rings cross each other. One of them is a Mobius Ring with 1 surface and one side, the other ring has a only 1 surface going around continuously, .. and no sides. FUN
Hidden Ring in SpringStone
2012This Ring Sculpture has kept me busy since June last year. Initially the idea was to make 2 crossing rings, but the material inside was so resistant that it seemed impossible to accomplish. Today final wet polishing and an outdoor photo shoot. I suppose that with the right instruments everything can be done in stone, there are a lot of things to discover yet.Have to think already about another 1, Knowing what I know now I think it will be the big black one.
Hidden Spiral Ring in Spring Stone
2012In this Spring Stone from Zimbabwe a ring spirals around itself.
India Proposal
2012This sculpture is a proposal for a monumental sculpture (2,5 x 1 x 1 mtr) that will be made during the international sculpture competition in India. " 2nd International Stone Sculpture Symposium 2013 in Daroda in India" A Closed loop spirals around the stone and returns trough the diagonal in the centre of the stone. Today 11-10-2012, I heard the great news that I am accepted in this stone sculpture competition. There are 4 sculptors from India and 14 sculptors from other countries.
Karel's Banden-3
2012The core of the stone is "freed" with around a shell of stone. The illusion is made as if the stone wrap around lies , bfree around the core but also this time it is 1 stone. The color comes by polishing.
Torus in a Cube
2012Beleive it or not, but this is a closed ring in a Cube in Belgian Hard Stone.
540 Twisted Torus in Red Brick
2011The problem with Brick Art is the dust. This is the second Brick sculpture in a series of probably 10 in total. This time the orientation of the ring is oblique compared to the 1th one which looked like a Celtic cross which was not the intention. There is a video as well to show the work in progress. To explain the form,.. Take a pile of carpet tiles, turn this pile over 540 degrees an form a closed ring with it as in the sculpture. That is this twisting.
Hidden Square Knot 2
2011The search for complex geometries secretly hidden in stone, goes on, already 2 trefoils were connected, and also 2 Split Tori. Now the question came, “Is it possible to connect a Trefoil with a Split Torus. After the study in the Cube was finished it seemed to be possible, and here is the result in Kisii Stone from the Kisii Valley in Kenya. During the Chianciano Biennale this sculpture was awarded with the 3th international price for sculpting.
Ring of Hardstone Mixture
2011This sculpture is the first using a new technique , a mixture of different kinds of hard stone. In this case in Belgian Arduin and 2 different types of marble. When tis technique works, it is a first step towards huge monumental sculptures using rest materials. (Private collection)
REd Brick Ball 'TimeCapsule'
2011Continuing process around this Red Brick Ball, the Timecapsule. Later on pictures of all karel's works will be locked inside, that's for the future
Twisting 2 in Red Brick
2011Visiting Bruno Ernst, the man who made Escher Famous he asked me if I ever did a twisting using a triangular tube. Never challenge me, I will be to exited to refuse. Take a high pile of carpet tiles with a perfect triangular form. Twist this pile over 600 degrees and then bend it in the form of a ring. This is the object that is embedded in this red brick sculpture. Following the surface on the outside you will notice that it goes around 3 times before returning to the same spot. Contrary to a Mobius band there is no side of the surface on this object.
Hidden Magical rings
2011The Knot inside this SandStone sculpture is rather complicated. There are 2 rings. The bottom ring is split over 540 degrees forming a Trefoil, the top ring is split over 360 degrees forming 2 connected rings. One of the top rings is connected in the middle to the Trefoil forming a longer Trefoil Knot with a ring attached to it in the top. You can only see it when you walk around it and look inside.
Hidden Knotted Chain
2011The result of almost 5 months of work, in French Sandstone. The 2 Rings are both split over 360 degrees resulting in 2 rings in the top and 2 in the bottom. One of the top rings is connected to one of the bottom rings,.. resulting in a knotted chain. The only way to see this is walking around and looking inside,.
540 Split Torus in Red Brick
2010In the search for complex geometries secretly hidden in stone, Karel wanted to try red brick to work in. Brick opens new possibilities, Works can be made on a larger scale. This is the first in a series of mathematical Brick sculptures. A Splitting over 560 degrees. In this material first a wall in brick is made , the sculptures is carved in the brick wall.
Hidden Ring
2010In the search for complex geometries secretly hidden in stone, Karel always starts with a Torus. Already this stage of the sculpture is interesting, therefore in this case the work stopped there. Many people asked him to do this several times, so for once he listened. If the Torus is not of a perfect shape, as in this sculpture of French sandstone, the next step in the process of twisting or splitting is not possible because an error on this level can never be corrected. It is a lot of work ever time going through this ring making process, but is a necessary part of the job.
Hidden Granny Knot
2010In his search for complex geometries secretly hidden in stone, it was quite obvious that after making a Square Knot with open Trefoils the question came, “Is it possible to connect 2 split tori”, a good friend who does mathematical programming for fun said no, but Karel insisted and indeed, it was possible. This time not the trefoil with his mirror image, but with his twin trefoil forming a so called Granny Knot. This can be easily done with a rope . First form a ring, open the ring, make two left or right sided knots and close the ring. You can do it,.. It is as simple as that. In stone it is somehow more complicated. For this moment it is not known yet if connecting Split tori can be done with the image and the mirror forming a Square Knot. It can be done with the rope, but how it looks like in stone? To be investigated.
Diagonal Hidden Split Torus
2010The search for complex geometries secretly hidden in stone, goes on, already 2 trefoils were connected, and also 2 Split Tori. Now the question came, “Is it possible to connect a Trefoil with a Split Torus. To investigate this possibility a preliminary study had to be done to see if it was possible to make a split torus in the diagonal of a stone. In order to be able to connect a Trefoil to a Split torus, the stone would be more massive, so the orientation of the Split Torus would be different. This was difficult, because several parts of the splitting could not be reached from the outside. So new instruments had to be made and this one served as a sort training tool. The result of all the efforts is here. When Carlo Sequin, who is a specialist of 3 D engineering saw this one first he said to me this is impossible, and indeed it seems to be, but with some tricks I managed, knowing now that the other projects would be possible too.
Hidden Square Knot 1
2010In his search for complex geometries secretly hidden in stone, Karel made already trefoils, split torus (also trefoil), so the question came ,. “would it be possible to connect a trefoil with another trefoil. In this case a trefoil is connected to its mirror image. With this Karel discovered that he had entered the magical world of mathematical knots and double knots. This one, a trefoil connected with his mirror image is a Square knot. It opens new possibilities.
Hidden Klein's Bottle
2010In the search for complex geometries secretly hidden in stone, looking for impossible mathematical forms is the most interesting thing to do. Most of the works in this site is around Mobius bands. If a Mobius band is folded in space it forms a Klein’s Bottle which is an intriguing object because it has only 1 surface, the inner and outer surface are the same. Normally it can only exist in the 4th dimension, but here is a representation were the surface
Twisted Rings
2009Two crossing rings with a diameter of 120 cm are twisted over 540 degrees. The intersection aria on the top and bottom are intriguiing .
Split Torus, Breaktrough
2009This 540 Split Torus (Trefoil) in stone is formed bij splitting the stone with a 540 Mobius space. This time I did not work only on the inside of the stone forming another Hidden object, but the splitting is also going though the rough outside of the stone. For me personally this is a new approach that feels as a Breakthrough" Although Karel normally starts with a Torus in this sculpture he only made the inner part of the torus and did the splitting through the stone itself. For many this is their favorite.
Hidden Infinite Trefoil Knot
2009In the search for complex geometries secretly hidden in stone, sometimes a form made gives new possibilities for further works . This Trefoil is open on the front and the back. After this Trefoil was made there came possibilities for connecting Trefoils. Eventually in all the works Karel Made a clear line of development can be seen, there is a logical order, in discoveries.
Hidden Split Torus 2
2009In his search for complex geometries secretly hidden in stone, Karel found some friends who are working in the same direction. During the Bridges conference (2008) he met Carlo Sequin from the Berkeley University who brought him in contact with one of the world’s leading sculptors Keizo Ushio. Keizo is the master of mathematical stone art, making splitting twisting as huge stand alone object. Karel’s mission is to discover these forms inside the stone. Although this splitting in a ring does not look like the Trefoil, it is the same phenomenon, a ring with a knot on its which may be to the right or to the left, only this time captured in a split torus.
Spiral in French Sandstone
2009Within this intriguing Spiral, an almost more intriguing cylinder can be found. You must look inside,.....
Hidden 540 Twisted Torus
2009Within this Serpentine stone first a ring has been liberated, next this ring was twisted over 540 degrees.
Twisted Ring
2008While attending the Bridges conference in 2008, celebrating the 110th birthday of Escher in Leeuwarden in 2008 Karel was inspired by all the mathematical art in the exhibition and he decided to make a twisting in cellular concrete. Too much in a hurry he made a very fortunate mistake, he miscalculated and instead of making a twisting over 540 degrees he only twisted over 270 degrees. In this way he made a special variant of the so called Mobius band. If you follow the outer surface with your hand you may discover that the surface goes around four time before you reach the same spot . That makes this form unique because it has only 1 surface ( going around 4 times an no sides.
Uncovering Rings
2008Uncovering Rings was Awarded with the with the 3th international Prixe for sculpting during the Biennale of florence 2009.
Hidden 180 Split Torus
2008What is becoming increasingly important in Karel's work, is that the objects are really inside the stone as hidden objects. Very difficult to make, the satisfaction when finished, is all the greater. This Split Torus contains a 180 degrees rotated Mobius space
Hidden Interlocking Rings
2008Alabaster is often delivered as tubers. That looks like a big potato. Within such a sound Alabaster tuber Knol Karel made three rings that cross each other at the bottom and top.
Bella Borromea
2007Borromeum Knot in Alabaster
Hidden 'Split Torus' 1
2007In the time line of my works this is the second Trefoil captured in a ring by splitting with mobius band that turnes over 540 degrees. This one got a lot of attention during the 2007 Biennale of Florence. Paul Lorenz gave a public lecture about this sculpture the link tot this lecture can be found elsewhere on my site., in Biennale and after. :
Hidden Trefoil
2007This is the first Trefoil Karel made after the famous etch of M.C. Escher. Escher explained to his good friend Bruno Ernst that he had much difficulty making this drawing. He made this one to follow in a sense his French friend Albert Flocon who was more intensively working with knots and trefoils. If he had known on beforehand what kind of difficulties he would have making this one he would never had started with it. Making the sculpture in 3-D is about the same, Escher’s etch shows only one side of the trefoil. It was very difficult to imagine what was going on, on the opposite side. For me this was the start of developing and discovering complex geometries secretly hidden inside the stone. It is said about Karel’s work that is well worth following these "pandemic primordial discoveries"
Mexican
2007A quest for the extreme limits of the possibilities in stone. The Ribbon does not run all the way through, but has a beginning and an end to the top of the image. "Connoisseurs" compared this sculpture with Maya Art. The Ribbon that goes around, is holding a ball at the top caught.
Mexican 'Top View'
2007Top view of the sculpture ten Mexican
Chinese Soap Stone
2006While exploring the inside of the stone sometimes accidentally organic forms appear,. it is all part of the process
Trapped Ring
2004Retrospect, the development of the sculpture techniques of Karel can be seen as one continuous search for new possibilities. In this little sculpture a ring is trapped between the 2 rough halves of the stone. Because everything is so clearly separated there is an illusion that the object is composed of several parts.
Alabaster exploration
2004While exploring the inside of an Alabaster stone Karel developed several techniques and ideas about how doing things, because his way of "Reversed Sculpting" is not a known way of carving stones. It has led to an surprising sculpture, hollow in all directions. You have to look inside to see what is going on.
Inside Out
2004Looking for the Interior of the stone, it becomes suddenly very organic
Going Through and Trough
2004While exploring the inside of this piece of Serpentine 2 tunnels were made. One of the tunnels lies around the other one. It'like the old song of the Who,.. See me,.. Feel me,... Touch me,
Looking for the inside
2004Unfortunately this sculpture does not exist anymore. Broken
Illusion
2003What makes this sculpture particular, is that the strong contrast between smooth and rough material gives the illusion that it is composed from multiple blocks. That is not the case. All Karel's works are always formed within one stone.
Trapped Balls in Serpentine
2005Inside this sculpture 4 balls are trapped in a way as if the sides of the sculpture were layed on like wet clay afterwords. It's an illusion, because everything was just carved out of one stone.
The Stone inside the Stone
2004Inspired by the film "Hellraiser". Karel's goal was to call a same kind of ' image ' in stone. It gives a new dimension to this stone, the ' soul ', the deeper ' stone ' becomes visible.
Exercises in Brezil Soapstone
2003Looking for the inside the stone, Karel in 2003 tried all of his findings of exploring the inside of the stone in 1 stone. Tittle, it is up to you
Victory
2003Very simple, but already very powerful, and characteristic,.. What can I say, . it was made in the first 3 months after I started sculpting in 2003 . Victory,.. ;-) I am still amazed. ;-)
Karel's 'Banden' in African Serpentine
2004Escher and Dali both made paintings of shelled heads. Escher's drawing is called the "Banden". Who started it is not known, but it is almost certain that they have not seen each other. The idea of “Banden ” inspired Karel to make his version in stone. Funny is that anyone who sees this sculpture for the first time directly says “He that look like Escher or Dali”
Maltheser Cross in Serpentine
2006Seen from above it looks like a Maltheser Cross, it is an other experiment inside the stone,, a ring crossing a disk,. This theme asks for more experiments,..
Karel's 'Banden' 2
2006After he made Karel's "Banden" Karel wanted to go further with this theme and not only make an outside spiral but open the inside as well. The result was stunning, even for him, because the repetitive screw movement came as a surprise.
Alabaster Ball
2005In a further exploration of the innermost of this Alabaster stone Karel decided to separate the sphere frome the stone. It can be turned around.
Hidden Balls
2005Hidden balls in Australian Red serpentine. This was the first sculpture for which Charles worked with molds in order to preserve the exact shape of the balls
Hidden Rose Ball
2005Because the technique of digging in stone was not known, Karel tried to ecxplore in inside of his stones in different ways. In this case a pink ball inside the stone that is only attached to the stone on a very tiny area.
Hidden Cube
2005For this Cube in Serpentine I had to see my old mathematics books again for the Pythagorean theorem to calculate what the maximum size of the cube is so that it fits within the stone. As far as I am concerned particularly successful
African Link
2005With this sculpture Karel had an exposition in galery "de Gang" in Haarlem together wit the Nigerian artis Toyin Loye. This sculpture marked the border between the African art and Karel's sculptures
Roman Helmet
2005The idea behind this sculpture in Serpentine is a type of Roman helmet with visors, a series of non-existent, but in Karel's thoughts.
Hidden Disk
2003This is the 2nd sculpture that Karel made in October 2003. Despite the fact that it is only the beginning of his sculpture carrier, there were already homemade instruments used to dig this form out of the stone.
Cube and Balls
2005The quest inward, inside the stone delivered in first instance questions as,.. Is it possible to create a ball inside a stone like that it had always been there and also a cube. That has led to this sculpture where there are even 2 balls that seem to sort on the outside and a very hidden cube at the bottom that could only be made using special keyholes on the sides.
Spiral on the inside
2005Here again it was het beeld Karel's "Banden" the inspiration, only now the spiral or winding is on the inside of the stone. An awkward command, but successful.
Opal Stone
2004Opal stone or Spring Stone has the difficulty that it contains a black hard core surrounded with a softer brownish material. Most sculptors take away the brownish material before they start sculpting. In Kalel's vision the carving proces takes place on the inside, which in this case is very complicated. The 3 layers are almost separated.
Exploded Stone
2004For this stone I went a bit further, in the study of exploring the inside of the stone. The originally almost round stone was cut in slices and next build up in a sort of open structure as often used in anatomical models, showing the very inside of the stone, like an exploded skull model.