STATEMENT BY XU LEMM
In a moment of inspiration, the image of a fully completed sculpture appears in my mind.
A likeness of the image is then sculpted in clay. From this, a mold is made and then the sculpture is cast in
bronze, silver, gold, polyester, etc.
My sculptures are cartoonishly surrealistic. Cartoonish because they reflect the spirit of our time and
surrealistic because they are the reproduction of a spontaneous thought, an invisible reality.
Surrealism makes the invisible reality visible.
My sculptures do not have a priori meaning. The naming of the sculpture occurs afterwards, as well as its
symbolic interpretation. My sculptures speak to the feelings of the observer.
When observing my work, each person will experience a different emotion, so there are as many explanations as
there are observers.
The interpretations I enjoy the most are the metaphysical interpretations that best succeed in explaining the
invisible reality that is the source of my inspiration.
The image and the text are like two companions on a journey to the unknown, exploring together the depths of
the invisible reality that surrounds us in an attempt to understand its mystery.
My work is an invitation to join and enjoy this quest.
XU
XU LEMM AND HIS WORK
Xu Lemm (Kurt Lemmens) was born in Leuven on the 28th of May 1970. After managing an SME from 2000 till 2016,
Kurt Lemmens decided to devote the remainder of his life to his passion: pictorial and sculptural art.
His artistic production can be divided into two periods:
1) Pixel Art: In his first period, he created small and large canvases using a 'pixel-art'
technique. The pixels consisted of small diameter spheres made from recycled ocean plastic which he
covered with up to 8 layers of paint to produce hundreds of kinds of the different hues.
2) Sculptural Art: After exhausting the possibilities of the pixel art technique, Xu Lemm
turned to his real passion, sculpture. In moments of inspiration, a complete picture of a sculpture
takes shape in the artist’s mind which is then made visible by being modeled in clay. The clay model is
subsequently produced in a variety of sizes by casting in different metals like bronze, brass, aluminum,
and steel. Some sculptures are also made from painted polyester.
To sculpture as to art in general is attributed the power to express feelings when it is certainly unable to
do so. Feelings have no apparent form that can be reproduced by sculpture. It so happens, however, that the
onlooker can be moved by a sculpture, but how would a sculpture that expresses joy look like? A sculpture
that expresses joy is the one you have joy to look at.
Mystery is not one of the possibilities of the real. Mystery is essential for reality to exist. Nature loves
to hide her secrets. The surrealistic cartoonesque sculptures of Xu Lemm are an open invitation to meditate
on the riddles of life.
XU
