Schenkers - Kunstmuseum The Hague
Kunstmuseum The Hague presents Aldo Bakker – Pouring Vessels, an exhibition featuring 40 pouring vessels. The presentation in the Kunstmuseum, made possible by a gift from Ernst van Alphen, will be the first major presentation of this important element in the work of Aldo Bakker. The exhibition has been curated in collaboration with Jan de Bruijn, curator of applied arts and design at the museum.
The objects Aldo Bakker designs can be categorized as sculpture, furniture, and pouring vessels. For the last category Bakker uses the Dutch neologism schenkers. The verb schenken is an ambiguous word, meaning to pour, but also to give. The noun schenker, however, only refers to a person who gives, not to a vessel that pours. But pouring is giving. That suggests that Bakker’s neologism schenker does not refer to run-of-the-mill vessels that pour water, oil, vinegar, or salt, but also to objects that give new forms to the world. Subsequently, also his sculptures and furniture are examples of new forms given to the world.
Each pouring vessel creates a different sensorial experience when handling it. The road traveled by salt in Bakker’s Salt Cellar is miraculous, and different each time when one handles it. The drops of liquid left on the voluptuous bulging at the top of Tongue activate yet other sensorial intensities. The body is engaged with Bakker’s pouring vessels not by just handling them, but by activating the senses while looking at what happens when handling them. Although ultimately just functional objects that have to meet a variety of technical and functional criteria, Bakker’s designs also stimulate the sensorial and imaginative capacities of its users and beholders. That is how each newly designed pouring vessel embodies a new feeling, a new imagination.
Text by Ernst van Alphen
2022
40 pouring vessels, 6 vitrines
Tijmen Smeulders