Enough said. Maybe not the most exciting of subjects, but sometimes it does not need to be that way. I should make more of them, it is almost like meditation.
These are 4 large sized artworks (almost A0) and are all hand made prints/transfers made from digital files. The technique is similar to what is done with photocopies or laser prints with lithography but not the same.
I was very satisfied with the result and the reactions of the public. For now this is the way I will print for some time to come. I will, however, try to find other ways to make handcrafted prints based on digital files. Maybe it is time for a manifesto.
Last Day of Winter
Materials: paint, black and white print, paint, 3mm MDF board with Fiber composite material ornament Printing Technique: Transfer print / Digital Printmaking Dimensions: 2 boards of 87x145cm
First Wood
Materials: paint, laser print paint, 3mm MDF board Printing Technique: Transfer print / Digital Printmaking Dimensions: 74x120cm
Near that Hill
Materials: paint, laser print paint, 3mm MDF board Printing Technique: Transfer print / Digital Printmaking Dimensions: 74x120cm
Materials: paint, laser prints (color / B&W), MDF Printing Technique: Transfer print / Digital Printmaking Dimensions: up to 33x45cm
Application text:
The theme that unites all my works is time. I use my own digital photos to create images that are usually part of larger artworks. What you see here are just the prints, made the way I am now doing more and more: transfer printing on painted surfaces and then disguise them as artifacts weathered by time. For me the printing process I use now with digital images, is as important as creating a print from a negative like I used to do in a darkroom.
The works I create that way are fake, they are forgeries of artworks that have never existed. Or maybe they will, one day, in the future.
The first one is based on a print from ‘Deep in the woods I found Nick Cave’s shrine…’ the other one from ‘Das individuum / the Singularity’.
Materials: paint, black and white print, 10mm MDF board in Frame made from a self made Fiber Composite Material Printing Technique: Transfer print / Digital Printmaking Dimensions: 65x50cm
Hungerwinter/Romantique – Walking through a forest during a pandemic
Expo as part of the Main theme ‘Kafayı yemek / Ich esse meinen Kopf’ during 48H Neuköln 2022 – 24.06-26.06 @CBS-Weinkunstscheune from 24.6 until 26.6.2022
Almost every week during these Covid years, I have made a long hike through Berlin and Brandenburg – and every time I brought a camera.
During my walks I not only cleared my head so I could stop myself from eating my head off – but I also tried to step away from all the head-eating as a result of our changed reality as became clear in the past decade: we are not in control of nature – not the nature around us and not our human nature – and we never have been.
Even before Covid I was regularly pondering about two facts that were burned in my head:
In Europe we used to have at least 10 large famines every century. And Famines and disease often go hand in hand.
Part of the battlefield of WWI is still not accessible to humans or fit to be used as farmland over a 100 years later.
In the western world we want to forget that. We think science will save us and our flourishing economy will make us better people, living in eternal peace and unity. But Trump, global warming and Covid (EDIT: and now the current war, the looming food crisis) have proven that we are not as in control of our destiny as we would like.
For me this was a reason to try and find inspiration in the art of times when we saw nature for what it really is: on the one side it gives us life, on the other it is our mortal enemy. The strange thing is that in the paintings of the past, nature is seen as a place of beauty and a world filled with power. That is what I focused on.
During 48 Hours NK, I want to show a series of large black and white photos printed on surfaces painted with silver or gold. I want to present that as a panorama built from multiple prints in ornamental frames (A0 or larger) on 3 or 2 walls, maybe also photos on floor/ceiling depending on the space. This should not only show nature, but also should be seen as a moment of contemplation of our role in that nature. Because without it we are going to blow our top off (platzt den Hutrand) or people start bashing each other’s heads in – or we have to bow our heads and accept our fate.
I always tell people I am not a photographer – but now I seem to be drawn to it nonetheless. And even worse: black and white photography. I hope this is not seen as sacrilege by those who worship the art of black and white photography. If so: my apologies.
It is a bit dark, but I like it. There is also a beta version. I started photographing for the series somewhere last winter – among other things inspired by stories about certain parts of Belgium and France still being off limits since WWI (the so called ‘Great war’) due to the poison in the earth.
We do not see that many broken trees in landscapes – or at least in the Netherlands I have hardly ever seen them. It is in the long list of things that are hidden from our view because of civilization? Just like sick people – and epidemics and death and other nasty stuff.
Today on reddit there was a story from a doctor who told about his experience with two different patients for whom there were no more options – and apparently that used to be very rare until Covid came along.
These and other things are an inspiration here. More will follow. Not sure where it goes – I got a whole lot of pictures of trees without leaves.
Materials: paint, black and white print, paint, 10mm MDF board in Frame made from Fiber Composite Material Printing Technique: Transfer print / Digital Printmaking Dimensions: 65x50cm
Materials: paint, black and white print, paint, 10mm MDF board in Frame made from Fiber Composite Material Printing Technique: Transfer print / Digital Printmaking Dimensions: 65x50cm
This is growing into a new series: nature meets city – part cityscape part landscape. Made a lot of cityscapes over the year and I started to notice two things that interested me the most. If I was working from a tower or so, those are mostly in the middle of the city – or what used to be an important point, like a harbor. And I had the tendency to zoom in on edge of the towns, its borders in the landscapes. Or, when standing outside of a city on a high place, I tended to focus on the borders from the other direction – or focus on patches of nature in the cities.
I know we can hardly call it nature with the anthropocene and all, but still.
I am dutch and I never ventured into mountainous landscapes, so when I finally went there, I asked on a forum what kind of lenses I should bring. I somehow thought I would most certainly not need any wide angle lenses.
Did I already say, I’d never been to the mountains?
Anyway, I had an 18mm wide angle lens with me and sometimes had to take multiple images, because it simply would not fit into the frame. Mountains are huge, can confirm. Valleys can be even bigger.
This picture, however, was made with a zoom lens.
Materials: fiber composite material, print, paint, pigments Print: Photolux Professional Matte 230 Dimensions: 40×40 cm
Materials: Fiber composite material, wood, shellac mixed with stone powder, print, paint, wood filler Print: Photolux Professional Matte 230 Dimensions: 40 x 65 cm
Materials: fibre composite material print, ink, paint, pigments, nail polish Print: Litho archive matt Dimensions: 85 cm * 65 cm
I tried my hand on smaller ornamental frames, and this is one of those that I like most. The other ones are red and white – but they are not finished yet. So there’s more to come.
Could turn them into a flag of sorts, the Dutch flag would be fitting maybe – even though I am totally not a nationalist. It got me thinking regarding the new Kleistpark price. Stay tuned.
