Description
W.T.S.B.B. E48, Wilfried Grootens, 2017
What is most compelling about Wilfried Grootens’s W.T.S.B.B. E48 is that it does not allow for a simple way of looking. A single frontal view, a quick assessment, and moving on are not enough. This work draws the viewer in differently. The moment you move around it, it begins to change. Individual layers, lines and painted structures shift across one another, condense, break apart and reconnect. As a result, the viewer does not feel as though they are looking at a fixed image enclosed within glass. Instead, it feels like observing something alive, something that is constantly rearranging itself inside the object.
That is precisely what makes the work so compelling. Its format is relatively intimate, yet its impact is surprisingly strong. The object is positioned at an angle on a metal stand, almost as if deliberately turned so that it never feels entirely at rest. In this way, the square form suddenly loses its static quality and begins to function far more dynamically. You no longer read it as a flat panel. You read it as space and within that space, a precisely controlled interplay of lines and coloured dots unfolds.
At the centre of the work, a darker blue “eye” becomes the focal point, almost like the axis or pulse of the entire composition. Around it, delicate green fan-like structures unfold, at times suggesting leaves, at others feathers, a map of growth, or a record of movement. This is precisely where Wilfried Grootens’s work becomes so compelling.
Painted sheet glass, bonded, ground and polished, is not merely a technique here. It is the very reason the work feels so harmonious. The individual layers create optical illusions. Viewed straight on, the composition appears more concentrated, almost like a precisely constructed sign. As soon as the viewing angle changes, however, the image loosens, shifts and begins to feel almost fluid.
At the same time, its colour palette is especially captivating. The pale sheet glass feels clean, cool and elegant, while a much more animated world unfolds within. The green structures carry a subtle aggressiveness, the dark centre maintains the tension, and the white and translucent layers introduce light and air. The result is not chaos, but a precisely constructed visual intensity. The work is rich without feeling overcrowded, distinctive without being loud — and that is exactly the rare balance Wilfried Grootens masters so brilliantly.
For the future owner, one of the great advantages of this work is that it functions almost like a constantly changing image in space. It is not a conventional sculpture that simply stands beside you and maintains a single expression. This piece lives through movement — your movement, the light and the angle of view. In an interior, it therefore does not behave as a static artefact, but as an object that activates the space. Not loudly, but by making you slow down and look again. And then once more.
The pedestal also plays an important role. The metal structure does not weigh the work down; instead, it gives it the right degree of distance and a subtle technical austerity that suits the glass exceptionally well. As a result, the object feels neither decorative nor sentimental. It has an unmistakably contemporary presence — refined, precise and self-assured. And yet something deeply human remains within it: curiosity, movement, and almost a sense of joy in the idea that an image need not be flat and glass need not be silent.
This is where the work’s greatest value lies. Wilfried Grootens demonstrates that glass can function simultaneously as image, space and optical experience. It is not an object that tries to please everyone at first glance. It is a work for someone who appreciates art that can be intelligent, visually beautiful and, at the same time, slightly restless. It can be precise, alive and subtly provocative in the best possible sense. W.T.S.B.B. E48 does not feel like an accessory. It feels like a deliberate choice — and it is precisely such choices that give an interior real character.
When you acquire this work, you are not simply buying glass. You are acquiring an object that will never behave in quite the same way twice. In today’s flood of decorative objects, that is, quite frankly, almost a luxury in itself.
More about the artist >>> here <<<
