By 2009, with only space and his own body remaining, the artist creates molds from leftover materials, marking the boundaries of “the body in space” and filling them with pigmented plaster. This process of “filling” and “emptying” results in autonomous creations, remnants of an action, that seem almost to move through the surrounding space.

This is especially the case with Ank’s wall pieces which appear around 2012. Seemingly withdrawing or being sucked into a void, they evoke a sense of both presence and disappearance, capturing the very moment in which this shift occurs—granting them presence in both time and space.

In 2016, through his Al Fresco series, the artist blurs the boundaries between painting and sculpture, focussing on what he describes as an “inner space”. Simultaneously, he experiments with bronze patinas that mirror the surface texture of plaster, culminating in the transformation of his first plaster sculptures into bronze editions in 2017.

Their dimensionality, spatiality, and lightness demonstrate a playful engagement with materials, touching the core of sculptural tradition. The illusion of lightness is achieved while remaining true to both the materials and the shapes they take.

Parallel to his personal evolution, Ank seeks greater flexibility, allowing for increased autonomy. A significant new step in 2020 involves creating molds in clay that bend, collapse, and sometimes even burst. Giving rise to sculptures that unfold through their own journey of realization.

Soon after this revival, in 2021, the artist pushes boundaries by using powder plaster itself as the molding material. The liquid, pigmented plaster which he pours into heaps of powder is now fully free to find its own path. The resulting sculptures take on highly organic, coral-like, living stances. Depending on their inherent subjectivity, they reveal a unique world of their own.

With these new approaches, the importance of size fades. Smaller works arise, which, just like in nature, hold as much presence as larger ones. What matters is the ‘relative size’ of a ‘self-being,’ where size is defined by presence, not dimension.

Stijn Anks process-driven approach — where sculptures grow within ever-changing molds, continuously rediscovering their stance — mirrors our own daily transformations. A search of letting go of control, allowing ourselves to move closer to our own realization, in this elusive, ever-moving life.

Resisting categorization into any specific art movement, his work continues to unfold in unexpected directions.