Rob Voerman. Entropic Empire

The Dutch artist Rob Voerman’s (Deventer, NL, 1966–Arnhem, NL) graphic art, photographs, and constructions limn visions of an alternative and terrifying yet also beautiful world. Entropic Empire lets visitors experience this singular future in interactive fashion.

A darkly gorgeous future

Voerman’s works are spectacularly somber and aesthetic architectures. They show a possible life after the cataclysm: something new is springing up amid the ruins of cities—bizarre organic shapes grow like tumors into the ravaged environment. Man-made buildings flank them, low-slung shoddy structures that cower in their shadows as though seeking shelter next to a new supreme authority. Humans still exist, but reduced to the status of tinkerers who recycle what remains. The subjugation of nature and technology in service to mankind, it appears, has failed—a new consciousness has taken control.

Brittle promises

Many of the buildings that serve Voerman as settings for his visions are famous examples of modernist architecture, like the U.N. building in New York. His works render these structures in a condition of decay—altered or fragmented. The buildings loom like reminiscences of past social promises that were never made good on. In this way, the artist questions their ideological tenor and reflects on the contradictions of the modern world.

For his art, Voerman mostly relies on basic and used materials like cardboard, wood, or corrugated sheet metal. His works range from fine art prints and photographs to sculptures and immersive installations. A workshop hidden inside the galleries invites visitors to start experimenting with the materials for themselves.

The mixture of decline and growth on view in Entropic Empire prompts meditations on the future, and especially on the interrelations between economics, ecology, and society.

The exhibition is accompanied by a publication that is available in our online shop.