Absence in presence – Presence in absence

My work, in all its varied forms, is ‘marked’ by my way of working, since the idea is always more important to me than the use of a certain medium. I always explore different processes, materials and mediums in my search for disclosure and on how best to express the idea.

The visual look of my work is normally simple, limited and restrained. The simplicity however, is always extracted out of complexity and therefore the work can appear fragmented rather than as a whole. I usually work with physical and metal images of places/spaces (land/city and seascapes). Furthermore destruction, construction and re-creation are expressed in both the art making (creative) process and in the work itself. I’m interested in making interpretations of images rather than ‘just’ representations. I often work backwards from the images, thereby taking them back to their beginning / starting point by breaking them down rather than by adding to them, thereby transforming them into simple forms, shapes, marks and lines – as a sort of sign language. This way of working often results in work that has a notion of architecture, which also relates to the ‘destruction and construction ‘ working process.  These works often evoke the ideas of memory, the passage of time and the ‘traces we leave behind’ which often emerge in my pieces, especially in the transformed empty and anonymous landscapes and it is often enhanced by thoughts about philosophy, psychology and poetry. This springs from my belief that simple changes can make a big difference and impact and yet retain the essence. I’m very interested in exploring different ways of interpreting an image in order to question the idea about reality and illusion. As the images are interpreted, stripped down and some even taken to the breaking point, they somehow become unrecognizable and almost abstract, which reflects the idea of destruction/re-creation and sometimes extracts an illusion from reality.