A photographic documentation of the exhibition can now be found on flickr.com. Also, the works I've made in October up to February, some haven't yet met the public, are uploaded there. ***
I'm on the outside. The woods, but not the kind where trees grow violently towards each other, it's more open. I've adapted myself to this place, I know, because I can walk amongst the tree tops, and my skin feels rough and I can see weeds sprouting on the surface. I'm not lonely, but I didn't realize I was, until, one day, I encounter an original other, a beautiful girl. She told me she was on her way to Santiago de Compostela. We had picknick together. At the end of the day, we said our goodbyes. If she would not end her journey, she would not be happy and I don't want her to be not happy. As it started raining. I told her that I'll be her umbrella. So, we went on together, while flowers on my skin bloomed.
'Bonnie pink' was one of the four new works I've selected to show at Kotroute 2010, in Antwerp. In October I was without a job, found another one, but this would commence only the following month, so I got back at making paintings, images I've been roaming around with for some time. The different stories that are interwoven in these works are reminiscent of my last days at art school and me moving to a studio in Borgerhout. The perfect example is 'Are you a dreamer or part of the dream?', this painting and its title I already knew, would be the centerpiece of my forthcoming exhibition at CC Strombeek.
However, I had issues. The paintings I've made, up to the meltdown with 'The architect of destruction', are unmistakenly mine, an extended approach on making painterly images as I've been doing so in my senior year. I expected few familiar faces would visit me in Brussels and somehow that thought urged me to hide myself.
I'm on the outside. The woods, but not the kind where trees grow violently towards each other, it's more open. I've adapted myself to this place, I know, because I can walk amongst the tree tops, and my skin feels rough and I can see weeds sprouting on the surface. I'm not lonely, but I didn't realize I was, until, one day, I encounter an original other, a beautiful girl. She told me she was on her way to Santiago de Compostela. We had picknick together. At the end of the day, we said our goodbyes. If she would not end her journey, she would not be happy and I don't want her to be not happy. As it started raining. I told her that I'll be her umbrella. So, we went on together, while flowers on my skin bloomed.'Bonnie pink' was one of the four new works I've selected to show at Kotroute 2010, in Antwerp. In October I was without a job, found another one, but this would commence only the following month, so I got back at making paintings, images I've been roaming around with for some time. The different stories that are interwoven in these works are reminiscent of my last days at art school and me moving to a studio in Borgerhout. The perfect example is 'Are you a dreamer or part of the dream?', this painting and its title I already knew, would be the centerpiece of my forthcoming exhibition at CC Strombeek.
'This is me leaving' is the first of a serie works in black and white. There is little use of color, but in large I don't feel comfortable with colors anymore. I want to drop into my paintings, and colors seem to cause too much of a diversion by associating to the real world. The image; I am again found in company of a demon, in his car. The background shows a corner building, which is lously based on the address where I work now as a dishwasher.
At the previous exhibition I met a girl who was studying musical. I arranged 'The marriage of Lady Musical' after the idea of a renaissance depiction of a wedding, with cherubins. Several times when looking at my paintings, I wondered if maybe I embodied an old soul. The cornerstone of 'The All-spark' is a play of shadows; in white contours, I've fixated and entangled myself with the illusion of a second person who surfaces out of the previous layer. When backing up, it's almost like the right bottom shows but one figure, in a classic triangular composition.
At the previous exhibition I met a girl who was studying musical. I arranged 'The marriage of Lady Musical' after the idea of a renaissance depiction of a wedding, with cherubins. Several times when looking at my paintings, I wondered if maybe I embodied an old soul. The cornerstone of 'The All-spark' is a play of shadows; in white contours, I've fixated and entangled myself with the illusion of a second person who surfaces out of the previous layer. When backing up, it's almost like the right bottom shows but one figure, in a classic triangular composition.
Early January, I got to -mentally- take in the space that was reserved for me in Brussels. There is little time between working and painting, luckely, I'm used to constructing air castles in my spare moments. I apllied a wall painting on one side, leaving out great blank geometrical forms. The dividing line that goes well around the room, suggests a possible mountain landscape and is alternated with the canvases, respectively the horizon of each image.
An effective way of putting up a painting is by thriving on a truth that lies in the story told. 'Masters of reality' is the second feature of the October serie, me and Patience are quietly drawn in the studio, and because of its near lifelike proportion, I envisioned to play out the scene and keep the painting close to the floor.
'Why don't your eyes see me?' deals with an astronaut floating adrift in space and facing hallucinations along the way.
Approaching the end, the opening of the exhibition, I also decided to stir up interest by creating short films, something I have not yet done. 'Teaser#2' is for me the most valuable thing that has come out of the whole experience. The first teaser, in which I'm capturing the making of 'The globetrotter', an enlarged portrayal of the couple found in 'Thursday', had a lot of flaws and I deleted quickly. The idea for the follow-up, strangly, I remember thinking of already a year ago, when I was still in school and listening to that song, the same song used in the film. I guess sometimes due to the laws of physics, one is forced not to persue every notion that comes to mind immediately. I liked how each fragment of the different paintings comes loose from its setting and builds up to a story that, literally, lives within an ending and a beginning.
...Are you a dreamer or part of the dream?
I wrote down everything I wanted to share with you. Maybe I can tell more, but I'm tired. Please, do not hesitate to email me for anything. There are just too many stories, it's hard to unfold. Love, Christian. ***
An effective way of putting up a painting is by thriving on a truth that lies in the story told. 'Masters of reality' is the second feature of the October serie, me and Patience are quietly drawn in the studio, and because of its near lifelike proportion, I envisioned to play out the scene and keep the painting close to the floor.'Why don't your eyes see me?' deals with an astronaut floating adrift in space and facing hallucinations along the way.
Approaching the end, the opening of the exhibition, I also decided to stir up interest by creating short films, something I have not yet done. 'Teaser#2' is for me the most valuable thing that has come out of the whole experience. The first teaser, in which I'm capturing the making of 'The globetrotter', an enlarged portrayal of the couple found in 'Thursday', had a lot of flaws and I deleted quickly. The idea for the follow-up, strangly, I remember thinking of already a year ago, when I was still in school and listening to that song, the same song used in the film. I guess sometimes due to the laws of physics, one is forced not to persue every notion that comes to mind immediately. I liked how each fragment of the different paintings comes loose from its setting and builds up to a story that, literally, lives within an ending and a beginning.
...Are you a dreamer or part of the dream?
I wrote down everything I wanted to share with you. Maybe I can tell more, but I'm tired. Please, do not hesitate to email me for anything. There are just too many stories, it's hard to unfold. Love, Christian. ***
