De Aanschouw 1189 (2024)
About a month ago Joke Olthaar asked me to make a work for De Aanschouw in Rotterdam. I accepted the offer with gratitude. In my head the project kept me occupied from the start. I am not easily satisfied, so, every idea I had ended up in the garbage can. During that time I was reading 'The Creative Act' by Rick Rubin. He wrote in the book: "Living life as an artist is a practice. You are either engaging in the practice or you're not" I was clearly not. More and more I got fed up by the conceptual questioning, critical thinking and self criticism that comes naturally to me. The outcome was always the same, I destroy the work In my head before it is even made. Then I remembered reading a book by Henk Oosterling titled "Waar geen wil is, is een weg" (where there is no will, there is a way)
I thought well perhaps! I only have to get rid of my wil, my mind, my conceptual thinking, my judging and my conscious relation with reality. How difficult can that be? I phoned up a friend and we planned to go to Brussels to do a photographic experiment. With just a little bit of direction and pre-understanding we went on photographing for days. While the result was a bit disappointing to me, the experiment was a succes. I pressed the shutter without too much thinking. After returning home I locked myself in my atelier and worked with the same method on my photo's. I was deeply engrossed in the activity without conscious thought, I was on the right path. Driving my bike to my atelier I spotted an interesting package near a garbage bin. Somebody had put I there to throw away, I took it with me. I think my thoughtless project without involvement of the will led me to this street. Where there is no will, there is de Voorburgstraat! 18/07/2024
WASHI WORKS, 2021
This series consist of client portraits on Japanese Washi paper, that I worked on with a knife, a dremel, (spray)paint and sanding paper.
DEAD MAN TELL NO TALES, 2020
The work of Cromagnon - a cooperation project between me and Raymond de Vries - is a photographical investigation into the State of Being of Western Man. Cromagnon insists in creating images that focus on the very basics of Man, hence the Cromagnon. The Method consists merely of exercises. We will investigate a subject in an eccentric movement without the wish – or possibility – to reach the centre or an endpoint. We don’t have a mission, We circle around a subject when they reach the centre we leave it again.
CHERRY SERIES, 2020
An experiment in working with fruits on portraits.
CROMAGNON EXERCISE ARTISTS, 2015
The work of Cromagnon - a cooperation project between me and Raymond de Vries - is a photographical investigation into the State of Being of Western Man. Cromagnon insists in creating images that focus on the very basics of Man, hence the Cromagnon. The Method consists merely of exercises. We will investigate a subject in an eccentric movement without the wish – or possibility – to reach the centre or an endpoint. We don’t have a mission, We circle around a subject when they reach the centre we leave it again.
MEIN ANGST , 2013
Short series that evolves around the concept of fear.
CROMAGNON - KOMO SERIES, 2013
The work of Cromagnon - a cooperation project between me and Raymond de Vries - is a photographical investigation into the State of Being of Western Man. Cromagnon insists in creating images that focus on the very basics of Man, hence the Cromagnon. The Method consists merely of exercises. We will investigate a subject in an eccentric movement without the wish – or possibility – to reach the centre or an endpoint. We don’t have a mission, We circle around a subject when they reach the centre we leave it again.
