Inland
Empire
2008
Agitator
Mixed media
280 x 70 x
Made out of plywood,
a pair of socks, a textile rag, a garbage bag, a megaphone and a plastic bag
from the hardware store chain Clas Ohlson, the Agitator stands as a dummy for political,
social and artistic agitation. The figure might resemble a mix between the
revolutionary freedom fighter stereotype and a Tarzan-like naïve nature’s
child. The anti-liberalist/globalist/capitalist may
find his gadgets of resistance in a transnational
hardware store, just as the subversive artist shops his toolkit in the
supermarket.
Gardening at
Night
Oil on canvas
205 x
Planting dry
seeds into moist soil, fertilizing and weeding, letting plants grow, flourish
and eventually bear fruits, the gardener gently intervenes in nature’s course
and may share the harvest from his efforts. Could this be a useful metaphor for
the art process? The artist intervening into culture, under cover by night,
secretly bringing forward new but inherent meaning and concepts as strange
fruits start materializing…
Ghost against
the Machine
Oil on canvas
205 x
The two major
forces of the human psyche battling it out! On the one side: The machine,
symbolising the controllable rationale; the plain logic and the mechanic view of
linear cause and effect. And on the other side: the ghost, representing
nature’s mysteries, the uncontrollable psyche and the endless depths of the
universe. Culture v.s. nature.
This struggle, ladies and gentlemen, is going on daily within us and around us,
constituting our world. Let the games continue...
Winds of Change
mixed media
200 x 130 x
Dragonflies, a
silent breeze and, uh, something else… To encounter an object not knowing the
reason for its existence nor understanding its function can be a scary
experience or one of great relief depending on the context. For instance,
coming across dubious structures in the woods will slightly raise our level of
awareness, for although we know it must be from kids play, it reminds us of
relics from possible horrifying rites performed by strange cultures. So what is
this connection between the child (in us) and the culture of our fears, when
their objects might resemble each other to such extent?
Lovebirds
(Billboard)
mixed media and oil on canvas
286 x 300 x
Are clichés
less true just because they stick around and become embarrassing? A simple
naïve story: boy meets girl and together they build a home. Love… Then what? Happiness? Family… or domestic violence, divorce, riots against
bourgeois living? Commerce loves clichés, so we must too (or it never would
have worked), although superficially we really hate them. Well, this is a
billboard commercial promoting a simple cliché: Romance. Straight forward,
crudely done, i.e. from the heart(!). Can you believe
that? Nope- too embarrassing! This is art for crying out loud! There has to be
irony, a backdoor… Those crazy transavantgardes were
wrong, right?
Blackboard (Raise Hell)
mixed media
190 x 142 x
School consists
of a few things: Kids, a teacher, perhaps a roof, and always a blackboard. Now
this crudely made blackboard could be from rural Africa,
Soul
mixed media
201
x 70 x
What is a soul
if not detached from the body? But this idea of purity surely must mean that
the soul on its own is cut off from performing actions of any kind, as without
the body, any connection to the material world would be lacking. No
socialising! Left as a carcass stripped bare from its interface, the soul
strives upwards, casting its lonesome light into eternity…
Unknown Waters
oil on canvas
205 x
Some people
(and artists) go more head on into exploring unidentified territories than
others. And some sail away on unknown waters and never return. (Don’t we all,
and won’t we all in the end)