Concept of this series of works;
'The Covarrubias series' is a series of large scale watercolor/charcoal drawings based on a texts from Miguel Covarrubias's book 'Island of Bali'. The titles of the drawings are literally taken from the book, yet I interpreted the texts in my own way, making it a story of my own.
Indonesian art & culture has had a big influence on my development as an artist. I studied fine art at ITB, Bandung, Java in my last year of my studies as an exchange student from the Willem de Kooning Art Academy in Rotterdam. Once I had my bachelor degree in the Netherlands in fine art, I moved to Bali where I worked in my studio and made an almost anthropological study of Balinese hindu culture.
Miguel Covarrubias' book, 'The Island of Bali', first published in 1937, is an anthropological studies on the island's culture. The author, an artist himself, writes in a visually rich language, which inspired me to make the series. Balinese culture is often on the verge of beauty and something disquieting. Disquieting beauty has always been major element in my work.
The series, even though literally based on texts from the book, are not illustrations. They are autonomous art pieces, pulled from the book and taken into my own visual world.
'The Covarrubias series' is a series of large scale watercolor/charcoal drawings based on a texts from Miguel Covarrubias's book 'Island of Bali'. The titles of the drawings are literally taken from the book, yet I interpreted the texts in my own way, making it a story of my own.
Indonesian art & culture has had a big influence on my development as an artist. I studied fine art at ITB, Bandung, Java in my last year of my studies as an exchange student from the Willem de Kooning Art Academy in Rotterdam. Once I had my bachelor degree in the Netherlands in fine art, I moved to Bali where I worked in my studio and made an almost anthropological study of Balinese hindu culture.
Miguel Covarrubias' book, 'The Island of Bali', first published in 1937, is an anthropological studies on the island's culture. The author, an artist himself, writes in a visually rich language, which inspired me to make the series. Balinese culture is often on the verge of beauty and something disquieting. Disquieting beauty has always been major element in my work.
The series, even though literally based on texts from the book, are not illustrations. They are autonomous art pieces, pulled from the book and taken into my own visual world.
'Bestiality',
150 x 180 cm,
watercolour, pencil, charcoal & soft pastel on paper,
2014
‘Bestiality’ is a mentioned by Covarrubias in the book a couple of times. As the theme human-animal has had my interest in art for a long time, the title ‘Bestiality’ was something I had to work with.
By choosing a swan as the subject of ‘Bestiality”, together with a girl, our thoughts immediately go to the Greek myth of “Leda and the Swan’ in which the god Zeus, in the form of a swan, seduces or rapes Leda. By making the swan a very dark, almost velvety black, it looks stronger, more dominant and masculine. The face of the girl shows a sort of absence, not resisting, not giving in either. The girl’s upper torso is placed next to her, leaving an empty space where her breasts and heart should be. Inside her empty womb we see a feather.
150 x 180 cm,
watercolour, pencil, charcoal & soft pastel on paper,
2014
‘Bestiality’ is a mentioned by Covarrubias in the book a couple of times. As the theme human-animal has had my interest in art for a long time, the title ‘Bestiality’ was something I had to work with.
By choosing a swan as the subject of ‘Bestiality”, together with a girl, our thoughts immediately go to the Greek myth of “Leda and the Swan’ in which the god Zeus, in the form of a swan, seduces or rapes Leda. By making the swan a very dark, almost velvety black, it looks stronger, more dominant and masculine. The face of the girl shows a sort of absence, not resisting, not giving in either. The girl’s upper torso is placed next to her, leaving an empty space where her breasts and heart should be. Inside her empty womb we see a feather.