texts on artworksHow wide it is, how deep it is, how much is mine to keep
The image shows a grid, a time plane and infinity.
A moment in time, a life, is elevated and highlighted.
The gradient of the visible colour spectrum connects the objects.
It reflects on the nature of time and the fleetingness of the present moment.
The present fades into the past and expands into the future.
The concept of the present is elusive.
Generally, we see time as a linear movement from the past to the future.
Once a moment has passed, it is considered past forever.
However, we have to deal with the processing of time.
Memories of events often emerge at irregular intervals,
meaning that each moment is, in a sense, present in every other moment.
This creates an continuous present.
It cannot be grasped, but it also contains everything.
RECONSTRUCTION I
We look at a stately mansion from the early nineteenth century.
The interior shows the influence of science and the spirit of discovery on the daily life of the bourgeoisie. A glimpse of the modern mindset. A citizen of the world.
A period when the industrial and material world was presented as an ideal at the first World's Fairs. They ushered in the industrial revolution and demonstrated advanced technology to the world community. It was not just a presentation of possibilities; it was a vision of the future.
As Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky realised during his stay in London in 1862, where the Great Exhibition took place, what he saw there was of world-historical importance. ‘You become aware of an enormous idea,’ he wrote after visiting the exhibition, which showed an exuberant material culture.
Also as a warning: ‘You feel that it takes great, eternal denial and luck not to surrender, not to capitulate to what you see, not to bow to what is, not to accept the material world as your ideal.’
The remains of the mansion are only visible. It has been carefully rebuilt, as if it were an archaeological find. There are literally gaps to be filled, information missing. To make it comprehensible, it must be situated in a context that has been deliberately constructed.
The reconstruction is enclosed by a building. The style and features from the industrial revolution, such as the cast-iron frame with glass, are no longer new and exciting, but tried-and-tested construction methods. The space seems designed specifically for the reconstruction. To exhibit, to study.
However, this building too is flawed and has fallen into disrepair. A glimpse of a newer era is visible through the glass ceiling, indicating that this era is also part of the past and needs to be re-examined. This suggests that missing links can be discovered and a new understanding of this era can be achieved.
A cyclical repetition like matryoshkas fitting together. (It is noteworthy that matryoshka nesting dolls were first exhibited at the 1900 World's Fair in Paris.)
History is constantly revisited from the shifting ‘now’ with an eye to the future. A vision within which art translates our world as a shifting living story.
Reconstruction IV
The scene is presented as a dioramic set-up showing an existing or possible reality.
Like the procedures at a crime scene, places are marked and material collected.
Or an exhibition is set up and we see a representation of something that is already predetermined. It is clear where what will be placed. Construction drawings are available for reference and all materials are placed in marked places.
The scene is repeatedly reconstructed and deconstructed using blueprints and scripts.
How do we look at the world and events in the world?
Is each event unique and is it examined and archived as a closed case?
Do we see the past as a sequence of events that repeat themselves and are essentially the same? Or is it fixed as a script to be played out.
A view to remember
A familiar view.
Viewed from a place just as familiar.
I see it because I am here.
Why capture it when you already know it so well?
You want to remember it.
For when it is no longer there.
We look out from a place of transition.
From here to there.
Inevitable.
By invitation only
The public space, a fundamental aspect of any society, faces significant challenges.
Polarisation, defined as the separation between groups of people,
gives reason to be alert to the potential restrictions of freedom and loss of autonomy.
How can individuals face these challenges without resorting to isolation?
The possibility of:
Becoming locked into the collective identity of a group as an individual.
You are seen as a group.
Or your individual voice might actually be heard through the power of the group.
Being heard as a group.
Not committing yourself to a group.
You are neither seen nor heard.
So I step out and observe,
but I look in while staying engaged.
I make room to create space.
Bonsai
We see residual forms and shells of objects that are no longer there.
They are lively structures. They have grown in and around the object.
They have been limited in their growth and forced into a form.
Forced to change form.
The result is a transformation or metamorphosis.
This transformation can be understood as a shift in the fundamental nature of being.
The remaining form represents the underlying essence which remains despite the changes.