AETHER is a public-space sculpture that explores the space between the physical and the unseen: between an object that can be approached, touched and encountered in everyday life, and a second presence that exists beyond its material form.

Standing within the public landscape, AETHER first appears as an autonomous sculptural object. Its monolithic form feels compact and grounded, while its surface carries the traces of a process that originates in virtual space. Digital gestures have been translated into matter, turning something once intangible into a physical presence.

Yet the sculpture does not end where its material surface ends. A hidden digital layer extends the work into augmented reality. Through a discreetly integrated NFC chip, visitors can access this layer directly on their smartphone, where a virtual sculptural form emerges from the physical work and continues into the space around it.

Rather than functioning as an additional effect, this digital extension is an integral part of AETHER. The physical sculpture becomes both an artwork and an anchor for something immaterial: a digital soul that is present at the same location, but remains invisible until it is actively revealed.

The title AETHER refers to the idea of an invisible substance or realm existing alongside the tangible world. Within the work, this becomes a way of thinking about digital space not as something separate from physical reality, but as another material condition with which sculpture can exist.

AETHER therefore occupies two realities at once. One is permanent, physical and immediately present in the public space. The other is intangible and temporary, appearing only through the device of the visitor. Together they form a single work in which digital and physical craft no longer function as opposites, but become different expressions of the same sculptural gesture.

AETHER, 2026
Berkel-Enschot, The Netherlands

Supported by Makersfonds Tilburg 2026.