andriesse ~ eyck is pleased to present Mik Bakker's first solo exhibition at the gallery. Bakker's work moves between different disciplines: from sculpture, to furniture design and architecture. She sees these as connected and constantly in dialogue. Bakker: “I think it's important to take space to wander through these fields, that form of boundlessness attracts me a lot.”

Bakker first became fascinated by sawbucks in France, through her neighbour, Eric Faisant, who had a large workshop full of machines and tools, where he was always at work rebuilding his house. He made his own sawbucks that were also used to sit on or put something away for a while. The title of the exhibition refers to the French term for a simple, nomadic form of theatre, in which the stage was created by laying simple planks on sawbucks, without further décor or decorations. As a result, these performances revolved mainly around the actors' play, their dialogues and improvisation. Returning to the focus on a craft is also central to the work of Bakker, who is always looking for lived-in materials in steel factories or houses. She transforms her finds into new objects while staying as close as possible to their origins.

Bakker is intrigued by the human relationship to materials. The expertise artisans have with regard to their materials, as well as the histories and anecdotes hidden in an object, place, or instrument. Bakker: "I feel akin to places of transformation and craft. Wood and steel workshops, small-scale storage sheds or historic buildings, make me curious about the history of objects and materials I find there and the stories that go with them. In this way, Bakker emphasises both the abstraction of objects and their functionality, exploring how we relate to the objects and stories that shape our environment.

Mik Bakker (NL, 1997) graduated from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague in 2022. In 2023, together with her partner Pim Lamme, she founded Projectspace 38/40 in Amsterdam Noord, which also serves as her studio. In the wood workshop, located next to the project space, she works closely with her craft master Robert Reinders.