Wednesday, 22 April 2009
Work from the series template of a sleeping city.
“For the project ‘Template of a sleeping city’ I was walking through nightly cityscapes and suburbs. The sketch-photographs I took while walking were dominated by circles, squares and rectangles; a completely abstract image showed up. These images can be seen everywhere; the night brushes away many characteristics of specific locations. What remains is a framework of views and places that applies to any location; a template of a sleeping city. “
“I’m searching for archetypical images of modern city spaces. Places that everyone recognizes instantly. The suburbs with blocks of flats, shopping malls with similar shops everywhere, parks with perfectly cut rows of trees and bushes. Places without many specific characteristics, the so called non-places, places which are spread around the world like building blocks. But also places that are part of everyone’s existence: the park out of your childhood, the view from the bedroomwindow, the parking space at the supermarket.
From my own observations and images from the internet and computergames, I create sketches which I then develop into paper sculptures. Eventually these sculptures are photographed. By means of photography I create a frame within which I can layer nuances of realism.
I like to work with paper and cardboard because of the simplicity of the material. A white piece of paper almost stands as a symbol for empty or blank. When creating the scenes I don’t hide seams, cuts and gluespots, for these are aspects that contribute to the experience of the cityscapes as a quickly build scenery, often destined to exist only briefly.
Squares, rectangles, circles are my working area from which I build my sculptures. I want to limit myself to the most simple forms. Details as windows, doors, curtains are hardly present. Only the basis remains. The paper sculptures can be seen as models without paint or decoration, a characterless blankness, with still a strong resemblance to the living world. “