Ostend For the artist Tom Herck was the Monday morning is just as exciting to wait while his artwork to water was left in the fountain in front of the Kursaal of Ostend. He made a message in a bottle on the occasion of The Crystal Ship. Tom Herck plays with ‘Wreckage in a bottle’ in the mysterious and nostalgic look of this concept.
The placement of the bottle in acrylic, took a little longer than expected, but the bottle landed finally safe in the water. “It was a lot of exciting. The pedestal weighs 3.000 kilos and had to in water, which isn’t so easy and then there is still a bottle in plexiglas. I have some difficult constructions installed, but still, it’s exciting,” says artist Tom Herck.
Cow and dictators
The artist is often in the attention with his work. In 2017 he made the Holy Cow. In the Borgloonse Kuttekoven was a cow being crucified as a critical symbol for the wegwerpcultuur and food industry in our society. Previously he was also “The Decline”. This is a house of cards of 10 metres. On each playing card, painted by the artist the image of a former world leader, or a former dictator. Among others, Queen Victoria, Napoleon, but also Stalin and Hitler are displayed.
For The Crystal Ship in Ostend, he made a glass bottle containing a message, referring to the people who for centuries to send messages in bottles. Traditionally, the method, especially by sailors and castaways, in the hope of a message to the mainland to send or to bring their discontent to the outside world. At first glance the installation looks like a traditional ” message in a bottle’, but on better inspection includes the bottle, a large folded paper in the shape of a ship, on which a message would need to stand. The shape of the vessel in this installation is a reminder of the decorative bottles where a boat was stabbed. The childlike, pure and honest form of this warship and the fragility of the paper contrasting with the hardness of the ‘normal view’ of a warship in a bottle.
