My self portraits do not reflect any kind of narcissism, or self centered 'mise-en-scène' ...
They would just show a picture of my self commentating on some scenery I have put them in...
it started out searching to understand facial expressions, not necessarily contextually, but rather technically, anatomically...
I have used my own face as a model. First the face alone, than later also using the hands and gestures to enhance the communication which I wanted to explore ...
Once the portraits realized, it would be sad not to consider them. Since the format was relatively small and they were not meant to last....
... I hence have taken the pics out into the street to give them a broader variety of contexts, from colourful and informal to any kind of formal, or symbolic background.
All depending on the findings I'd come across, while walking down the streets ...
A very personal vision of contemporary street art...
Through the expression of the face, the posture of the body and the gestures of the hands, an observed scenery will be subjectively qualified...
I kind of point out what I find interesting, funny, ridiculous, annoying, or inspiring ...
Oh, what fun it is, to be an artist!
there is a certain comfort to working with reclaimed materials. At least if one considers the 'fear of the blank canvas' - to paint or draw on discarded materials has the comfort not to be immaculate when starting to work on it. It brings along its history of usage, form, teint, surface and what not.
Yet again, none without a constraint, sometimes a reclaimed support comes along with such a pretty ambiance, wear, or patina that makes it feel like a white canvas...
lI like to use the heavy paper which I find in supermarkets, separating the layers of water bottles... or cardboard which is used for the same purpose.
The latter are particularly useful for me when looking for a lightweight support for self portraits.
Cardboard is lightweight, has a rough and a smooth side and can easily be cut out using a jigsaw.
I might have an academic approach in my work as a painter, yet my sculpture does not have this approach - I have not learned the use of materials and tools in some art academy or teaching workshop - thus my sculpture is a playground for me. The only academic approach here would be the sculpture as a picture, a narrative object, by itself. The technical aspects, if there were any, are purely self taught.
Concrete is a very versatile material. It can be used, such as clay, to build up the plastic or it can be cast in a mould, made on a clay sculpture beforehand. If demolded while still not completely crystallized it can be easily reworked using simple hand tools, like files, or chisels, sandpaper, or any other kind of tool. Here again possibilities are sheer endless to explore.
To me, my sculpture is a play as well as a study - drawing and sculpting are nourishing each other - the one helps to understand the other. ... like sketches in two or three dimensions
There is a liberty to self teaching which I find very much empowering. It is so much more playful and stimulating to use any kind of reclaimed material to either sculpt or build up the plastic.
... and, in the end, if it did not work out just carry the rubble back to the container where you'd found the stuff in the first place...
It would suffice to rummage through rubble containers on construction sites, or just early in the morning picking up the carton boxes put on the streets by clothing shops to be picked up... but also to see what kind of lost or disposed materials are just laying around in the streets, discarded by people. The amount of bottle caps laying around on supermarket car parks is pretty remarkable. All that gold... these caps on the tarmac are being rolled over and over again, flattened out and exposed to rain, sunshine, heat and cold, corroding overtime until almost gone (except the plastic inlay of course)
If only people could learn how to see...