BIJ/NA
Result of a group-working period at the Stadsgalerij
180x120cm
What Does This Mean
Print on Aluminium (2021)
ABOUT WHAT DOES THIS MEAN
This linguistic piece also knows a smaller version (which has been sold). It is a blueprint for a text, created logically from blocks, digitally constructed. As many appear to find comfort in knowing the intention of the artist or the artwork, trying to construct their meaning, I wondered what my position is in this relationship. Even though one can argue that no work can transmit one and the same objective meaning towards any audience, when one has figured this one out, it on the one hand is its own question whilst on the other, can be read in other ways as well.
The lines are non-printed aluminium while the black parts are printed. Since the aluminium is exposed, the work reacts to changes in light. Due to the location within the Stadsgalerij, its size functions to draw people to this side room.
120x25x25cm
Processed Surface
Acrylic sheets, transparant photo's, wooden frame (2021)
ABOUT PROCESSED SURFACE
This work was created through my desire to work with the concept of stacked or layered photographs. As this was a collective working period, I decided to photograph objects and moments during the residency which I knew were not going to be there during the presentation. These photo's have been printed on transparant sheets so every layer of acrylic has photo in-between. Looking on top of the work one is able to distinguish a few images and layers. Whilst looking from the side, every movement changes the perspective so from some angles, the material is fully transparant while from others, and image is distinguishable. This work changes how you look at the space and the other works.
60x60x15cm
Window Shopping: A Year On Display
Industrial window, lens packaging, epoxy (2021)
ABOUT WINDOW SHOPPING: A YEAR ON DISPLAY
I was fascinated by the material, the packaging of daily lenses, that my mom has saved for quite a while. I tried to contrast this plastic collection through giving it a more natural or organic shape, as a slowly rising landscape. The light falling through the display gives it a weird, aesthetic appeal. Where plastic or waste can be seen as a sign of affluence, as Baudrillard beautifully described, I named the work Window Shopping, and as these lenses are about a year's packaging of usage, it is called A Year On Display. By reworking them into this piece, they get a new temporary function. The industrial window I found on the scrapheap suited the location of the Stadsgalerij and therefore I decided to work with it for this experiment.
30x20cm
Pillow
Aluminium frame, photo (2021)
ABOUT PILLOW
Last but not least, this photograph was taken during the working period. As one of the artists slept within the Stadsgalerij, one day I found that instead of using a pillow - which he later got -, he used this towel. It spoke to me in the sense that once we decide to use objects for a different purpose than what may be logically expected, it has the power to become something else through our subjective approach. In a more abstract approach, this to me relates to photography and the way one can depict an object, showing something in a different light.
The contrast and the composition help to see the pillow for both what it is, as creating an aesthetically attractive image that invites you to think about the object as it clearly is not a pillow in the regular way you'd expect. In its isolation, it becomes something else.
ABOUT PROJECT BIJ/NA
BIJ/NA is a project, organised by the Stedelijk Museum Breda, St.Joost School for Art and Design, and the VanGogh Huis in Zundert. These three partners selected three students who were about to graduate from St.Joost in 2021. In their turn, they were asked to choose three alumni, from any other earlier period from St.Joost - of which I was one.
The participating artists were: Marit van der Heijden, Loes van Reijmersdal, Sjors Smit, Niels Goos, Roos Vogels and myself.
We have worked together in the space for four weeks, and exhibited the results of our working period in the Stadsgalerij for two weekends. More information about the project can be found through the museum:
Witte Rook also wrote about our residency and experiences, in three different articles from three different perspectives which you can find here: