Lost Tablets
ARTIST: JAN van SCHAIK
MELBOURNE. 2019 - 2026A series of art works testing an object/concept paradox.
Derived from acts of abstract architectural composition, this collection of 100 objects explores the Ship of Theseus paradox — questioning whether an object remains the same after all its original components have been replaced over time.
Posessing a resonant familiarity that oscillates between the platonic, recognizability of Lego, and a romantic notion of architecture, the works resonate with the prosaic and often unnoticed coded languages of the buildings that surround us daily. They have been featured in Australian newspapers, television, radio, and an Australia Council for the Arts research report. They have been exhibited in eighteen group or solo shows in Australia, with the majority of the works in private collections around the world.
The works are accompanied by a book, a series of limited edition large and small-scale framed prints, postcards, and stamps and have received honorable mentions for art and architecture awards, featured in the inaugural Quarantine Art Fair and Melbourne Design Week, and have been displayed in the virtual Italian Pavilion of the Venice Biennale of Architecture. Additionally, they were exhibited in the Art Brussels 2024 OFF Programme, coinciding with his residency at the L'Escaut Project Space in Brussels in April of that same year.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY PETER BENNETTS and JAN van SCHAIK