Jacques van der Merwe

Jacques van der Merwe is a fine artist whose practice investigates memory and time through material processes and sculptural procedures.

The morphology of transience

This research investigates how memory can be understood as a material process shaped through time, contact, and transformation. Working through sculptural practice, the project examines the interaction between ephemeral actions and monolithic forms within vitrines, using controlled enclosure as a means to study how material change registers duration, interruption, and trace.

Central to the research is the concept of the empreinte (imprint), approached not as a representational device but as a material operation. The empreinte is produced through sustained contact between materials over time, generating physical traces that record processes of pressure, erosion, accumulation, and alteration. These traces function as evidence of temporal interaction rather than symbolic depiction, allowing memory to be examined through its material consequences.

The vitrine operates as a research apparatus rather than a display strategy. By isolating objects from their surrounding environment, the vitrine establishes a controlled spatial and temporal condition in which subtle material changes can be observed and compared. This separation foregrounds the internal dynamics of transformation while introducing a deliberate distance between object and viewer. The vitrine thus structures a tension between visibility and inaccessibility, enabling close observation while preventing physical intervention.

Through iterative making and extended observation, the research focuses on how transient actions—movement, friction, and environmental influence—gradually affect more stable forms. These interactions produce shifts that are incremental rather than instantaneous, emphasising memory as a process of slow accumulation and deformation rather than fixed preservation. Time is treated not as a narrative sequence but as a material force that actively reshapes form.

Situated within a practice-based, interdisciplinary framework, the research uses sculptural processes as a mode of inquiry. Material experimentation functions as a method for generating knowledge, allowing memory to be examined as something constructed through physical interaction and duration. Rather than approaching memory as a static archive, the project positions it as an evolving condition—one that is continuously formed, altered, and partially obscured through material processes.

Memory Blocks: Veil

2023

Vitrine, polyurethane, oil paint, beeswax, hair, silk threads, and frass

205 × 41.5 × 41.5 cm

This work explores memory through a yellow-golden, web-like structure formed by guiding silkworms to spin an ephemeral veil over a bust. The veil is treated as a visual and material element through which processes of concealment, accumulation, and trace can be observed.

Produced through the interaction between organic activity and sculptural form, the veil partially obscures the bust while remaining delicate and unstable. Its structure draws attention to how memory operates through layers, gaps, and interruptions, rather than through complete or transparent recall. What is visible is shaped as much by what is withheld as by what is revealed.

The fragility of the silk surface emphasises the tension between presence and disappearance. As a material trace formed over time, the veil registers both making and decay, suggesting memory as something continuously formed and altered rather than fixed or resolved.

Images: Steven Vawdrey and Sabine Bannard

A preserved human head encased in a glass vitrine in a museum exhibit. The artwork is made by Jacques van der Merwe
Close-up of a sculpture with a web-like smooth surface, encased in a transparent material, alongside a second dark rock with white speckles.
A wax figure of a woman's face, behind a glass display case, with her eyes open and her hair partially covered. The work was sculpted by artist Jacques van der Merwe

Procedures of Memory

2024–2025

Vitrine, smoke, microcrystalline wax, hair, glass, wood, aluminium, and paint

205 × 102.5 × 102.5 cm

Procedures of Memory examines ritual as a sequence of repeated actions through which memory is formed and altered over time. Memory is approached not as internal recall, but as something enacted through rhythm, recurrence, and material procedure.

The mono twin configuration introduces repetition with variation, emphasising cycles of becoming and unbecoming. Paired form and scale reflect how ritualised actions stabilise and unsettle memory, allowing past, present, and future to remain in ongoing negotiation.

Within the vitrine, material processes unfold gradually. Smoke, wax, and other unstable elements register accumulation and trace, foregrounding duration as an active force. Ritual is treated here not as symbolic performance but as a procedural condition through which memory takes material form.

Images: Steven Vawdrey and Sabine Bannard


A wax sculpture is placed in a foggy or misted glass surface, with bright light behind them creating a silhouette effect.
A silhouette of a woman standing in fog or mist with bright light behind her.
A sculpture of a woman with a strange little alien man, both illuminated by a soft light in a dark room. Artwork by Jacques van der Merwe

The Scream

Traumatic memories and electroplating reveal how constant layering transforms form. Left unattended, electroplating in an active bath will build endlessly, creating uneven, thickened layers that distort the original shape. Similarly, unprocessed traumatic memories intensify with repeated activation, reinforcing neural pathways until their impact disrupts emotional balance and clarity.

Both processes highlight how unchecked accumulation reshapes their original forms, turning clarity into chaos. This work explores the parallels between material and memory, showing how continuous layering without intervention leads to a distortion of identity and structure.


2023–2024

Vitrine, beeswax, graphite, acrylic, copper, crocodile clamps and electroplating bath

205 x 42 x 42cm

Images: Sabine Bannard

A vitrine with a blue-tinted sculpture of a human figure with a muscular build, illuminated under a blue light in a dark room.
A dark, eerie sculpture of a screaming human head with a glass sphere balanced on the forehead, illuminated by blue lighting.
A person with a transparent bubble on their head, illuminated by blue light in a dark room.

Blouapie /ˈbləʊ.ˌɑː.pi/

Dripping water serves as a metaphor for memory, illustrating its passage through time and impermanence. Memories accumulate over time, building up our recollections. However, just as water wears down surfaces, so memories are subject to change, fading or distorting as time passes.

The water’s constant drip reflects how memories are shaped by time, not in an instant but over a continuous process. This gradual erosion mirrors how memories are preserved and altered, reminding us that memory is not a static record but a fluid, evolving experience. The slow, steady nature of the drip underscores how memory is a persistent, ongoing process influenced by time’s passage and the experiences that accumulate within it.

2023-2024

Vitrine, water, salt, Vervet monkey skull, beeswax, pin, button, plaster and cotton.

Dimension: 205 x 26 x 26cm

Images: Steven Vawdrey and Sabine Bannard

A tall, narrow mirror or glass panel or vitrine, with bright light at the top and dark surroundings. Inside a portrait of a skull. The artist responsible for this sculpture is Jacques van der Merwe
A sculpture of a woman, possibly made of plaster or similar material, is displayed inside a glass case with rain droplets on the glass. The woman is wearing glasses and a head covering, with her profile visible against a red background.
A sculpture of a human skull with red light shining from behind. The glass is full of water droplets. The art is made by Jacques van der Merwe.

Red

We think we can get rid of dust with a vacuum cleaner, but it seeps in everywhere regardless. Similarly, memories spill back into our minds unexpectedly: some bring joy, others bring unease. The hoof of time never stops its splitting rhythm between the here and the before.  

War leaves behind the same residue. It does not disappear with treaties or silences, but lingers in the air, settling into the folds of memory where it cannot be swept away. In the red-lit enclosure, the body is held in suspension, neither fully present nor absent, echoing the way war continues to inhabit us long after its immediate violence has passed. What remains is not only the story of conflict but its residue—the unsettled dust of collapse, the silence that glows as persistently as flame.

2023–2024

Vitrine, pigment, resin and compressed air

205 x 101.5 x 101.5cm

Images: Sabine Bannard and Steven Vawdrey

A sculpture of a man lying inside a glass case illuminated with red light.
An art installation featuring a human figure lying on the ground, illuminated by red lighting in a glass display case with a black background.
An art installation featuring a nude male sculpture of a person lying on their side inside a glass case or vitrine illuminated with red lighting, with contrasting blue lights nearby. The sculpture is made by Jacques van der Merwe
The image is very blurry and predominantly red, with indistinct shapes and no clear objects or details visible. It is a sculpture of a male figure in a cloud of red dust.

Memory Blocks: Ma/Mother

This work explores the value of transparency and reflection as key processes in the formation and understanding of memory. Transparency (i.e., the direct access to one’s own mental states) and reflection (i.e., the examination of these states) allow implicit experiences to become explicit. Together, they shape how memories are encoded, stored, and recalled.

Reflections within the work symbolise the mind’s ability to reinterpret and transform memories, while transparency evokes the clarity with which some moments emerge from the subconscious. The interplay of these elements reflects how self-awareness and perception influence the construction and evolution of memory.


2023–2025

Vitrine, acrylic, mineral oil and beeswax

205 x 55 x 55cm

Images: Steven Vawdrey and Sabine Bannard

An illuminated art installation featuring a bust sculpture inside a glass box with yellow and red lighting.
A bust sculpture displayed inside a glass case with internal lighting, showcasing a female figure with a textured hairstyle and smooth shoulders, in a dark room with spotlights.
A glass display case or vitrine with a gold bust sculpture illuminated by yellow and red lighting, creating a dramatic effect.

The Secret

Information is kept in diverse formats, ranging from the complex cerebral networks of the human brain to more concrete forms, such as written text, digital archives, and oral traditions. The choice to withhold or disclose specific information frequently indicates its importance, sensitivity, or relevance over time. The dependability of conveyed information raises a significant concern, as each communication is influenced by memory, perception, and interpretation, which may lead to distortions. The transmission of information, whether retained privately or disseminated publicly, inherently illustrates the vulnerability and variability of human comprehension and precise recollection.

2024

Bronze, ceramic shell

205 x 81 x 81cm

Images: Steven Vawdrey and Sabine Bannard


Ancient fossilized human skulls-like sculpture or bust displayed in a museum exhibit case or vitrine.
A close-up image of a rock in a dark environment with a blue light beam passing vertically through the scene, surrounded by smaller rocks, wire and gravel. It might be a detailed image of a sculpture.
Ancient stone sculptures of two human faces in bronze facing each other, highlighted by warm light in darkness. The sculpture is mane by Jacques van der Merwe