Corn Cob

Look, and be surprised. David Bielander (Françoise van den Bosch Award 2012) is a master in optical illusion. You see a corn cob – that is obvious – but look and see what material it is made of. Bielander was well educated as a goldsmith – first in his country of birth Switzerland where he was an apprentice in a goldsmith’s workshop – and subsequently at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich with Otto Künzli. Yet Bielander enjoys the act of transforming simple materials. The pins turned into grains of maize, sheltered by three refined leaves shaped out of silver – a perfect sample of craftsmanship.