Artist statement

My work is inspired by the ordinary, the temporary and sometimes even the invisible. Moments in which everyday events come together and disappear again. Like raindrops that patter on a window and evaporate, shadows that come and go, or the wind blowing across a field that changes the crop in drifting patterns. 

It is almost impossible to make ‘wind’ visible’ in itself, you can only show its consequences, like when a current of air or a sudden draught gives you goose bumps on your skin, or lets surface of the water ripple.

I translate these sensations into reliefs. I draw, cut, burn and fold, using tools such as a pencil, pigments, scalpel or a soldering iron on paper or on wood.

The works I create involve concentration and extreme precision using rhythmic, repetitive meticulous physical actions. The resulting interplay of light, movement, structure and rhythm plays an important role in the completion of each piece of work.

My work will change according to the light of its surrounding. Just like wind, water or shadows are fleeting moments, the end-result of my work is changeable too.

Even though I strive after perfection, I am not a machine. I like to work manually, with as little help as possible from a ruler or gridline. When I work with a soldering iron, I will get a totally different result compared to when I would use a laser-cutter. I want the human hand to remain tangible. This is the reason why I will not measure out everything beforehand, so there will stay a room and scope for chance and contingency.

This way of working gives a tension if a work will succeed or not. It forces me to rely on my hand-eye coordination in an act of absolute focus.
In this concentration or focus, I search for silence. Not in the sense of lacking human sound, but rather as stillness; as an equivalent of inner peace, wonder, and slowing down. Silence as a form of positive emptiness, so that there is an actual space to be able to see and perceive the things around you anew.

I see my work not only as an abstraction, but as a kind of conversation or a musical score with a ‘continuo’ (the grid of the piece) in it. The human hand (mine) provides the vibration to create its melody.

With my works I want to create a momentum between the spectator and the work – as a kind of wordless conversation, something between speech and silence.