By Jeanne Tan / 08-02-2010

"Ice preserves, conserves, protects, eternalizes. After the ice has melted life continues. A frozen item is still, white, encircled by silence, while within one suspects a vibrant life, waiting for the ice to melt down. A moment in time. A moment within a process."

On 2 March 1987, twenty to thirty millimetres of icy rain bucketed down in the east of The Netherlands. The glazed blanket of frost brought public life to a standstill for that one day, merging landscape and objects into one. Everything frozen into place, time literally halted until the thaw began the 'dis-covering'. Photographs from this day are published in the book 'Ijzelboek' (Icebook) which Wieki Somers picked up at a fleamarket a little while ago. "My first thought when I opened the 'Ijzelboek' was that these images are probably going to be history in the future (with an eye on losing our winters)", says Somers.

The intriguing photographs formed the inspiration of Somers' new collection 'Frozen in Time', consisting of 12 objects - vases, table, stool, lamps, cabinet - that resemble mysterious frozen moments in time. Much like the frozen landscape in 1987, the objects possess a melancholic glow, their recognisable forms hiding under a translucent icy skin: 'a covered world which uncovers the mysteries that hide within everyday objects.'

To create the collection, a liquid resin was used to mimic the workings of ice. Objects can be dipped into the UV topcoat resin while being kept in the dark. After exposure to light, the material will literally 'freeze' into a solid layer that aesthetically creates a striking translucent glow but pragmatically, also acts as a strong adhesive. “I have always been interested in the character and possibilities of materials, in which I believe stories are hiding that can be liberated, much in the tradition of what the classical sculptors claimed to do," says Somers. "Wasn’t it Michelangelo who said the figures were waiting in the marble to be released by the artist? Comparable to that idea, I was always convinced that materials and techniques have an inner meaning.”

Some of the pieces include Hogweed table, Frozen cabinet and Big Frozen Vase, where the wilted flowers lose their original function but instead become the vase itself as they are frozen into place. "I am not interested in decorative elements in design at all. The use of a piece of nature isn’t meant to be decorative: a frozen branch just explains the meaning of the object," Somers continues. "Stills, the techniques we use are often related to conserving or saving: encasing, stiffen, incapsulating, fossilizing, or casting. I would like to halt time and show beauty in a world that never stops."

Studio Wieki Somers is a collaboration between Wieki Somers and Dylan van den Berg.

'Frozen in Time' is currently on view at Galerie Kreo, Paris from 30 January until 20 March 2010.

Photography: Fabrice Gousset, courtesy Galerie Kreo

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