Torch is proud to present 'Forever', Casper Braat's first solo exhibition at the gallery. 'Forever' is an ongoing sculpture series that strips home appliances of function, encapsulating these throwaway practical devices forever in stone. Sculpted in marble and gold, Casper elevates throwaway culture to monumental permanence, a celebration of today that will last forever.
Consumer society’s value for convenience has created a great availability of goods intended to make life easier. Home appliances are one such example. Due to global demand and copy culture, these machines suffer from standardized aesthetics and cheap mechanics. The short life span of these devices will ultimately land them in the trash, replaced by a near exact copy. Home appliances are a testament to wanton consumption in contemporary times, a beautifully perverse culture that values the indulgence of the current moment despite the inevitable consequences to come.
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Casper Braat (1991) is a visual artist and art director based in Amsterdam.
Consumer society values convenience in our daily lives, underlined by a desire for luxury, and a fetish for the new. Conspicuously marketed to everyone, this disposable culture results in excessive needs and designed obsolescence.
Casper’s sculptures and installations confront society’s devotion to consumption. He glorifies the everyday by lifting the ordinary onto a pedestal. The use of classical production methods and materials elevates the common to the iconic. In his work, the world appears perfect from the surface, but this dreamy representation of reality is just a reflection of the everyday.
Casper seeks to first act as critic, but above all else, to celebrate this perfectly perverse culture.
