The nature of my work

English

In recent years I’ve been working on a series of works in drawing, photography and film. I’ve named this project “The island”.

In the video, the photographs and the series of large scale charcoal drawings on canvas we see a body of work inspired by childhood fantasies of uninhabited tropical islands, adventure novels/films, naturalist discoveries (Charles Darwin) and the disillusion of adulthood. Apparent paradise and dystopia. Beauty and decay. Tropicalia. What's fake and what's real.
 
I've been searching for paradise for most of my adult life. Paradise in the shape of an uninhabited tropical island. Living most part of the year on the small tropical island of Singapore, it is hard to find the paradise I so yearn for. Singapore is the 2nd most densely populated country in the world. Its surrounding, once stunningly beautiful tropical islands are now surrounded by hundereds of huge container ships, or been 'redeveloped' for various industries. 

In my eager search for my paradise island, I am urged to look away from all this, I cast away that what doesn't suit my paradise, and keep what I love. Perception. I create my own world that way in order to survive. 

This is resulted in a body of work; video, painting, printmaking, large scale drawings and photographs. 

The series is mostly based on the following novels/films; the Lord of the flies, Robinson Crusoe, the Blue Lagoon and Martin Pincher. But also on the book "the voyage of the Beagle", by Charles Darwin, in which the naturalist comes up with evolution theory. 

Ongoing work (drawing & video)

"Stories with a predictable, happy ending are generally extremely boring."
My 'other/ongpoing' work consists of charcoal-, pencil-, watercolour drawings, and (mono-)prints of various sizes, and film. The drawings and films have a figurative quality and depict a world in which unexpected connections often confront unclear feelings that evoke a certain confusion. The protagonists, whether human or animal, are enigmatic, elusive, and seem to be absorbed in their own world.
The work cannot be reduced to a literal meaning. No matter how well they can be named or described, the meaning of the artwork is made clear only through the total image itself. Although the drawings and films possess a certain clarity, the viewer remains in the unknown and seems to receive no unambiguous answer. This is mainly due to the use of unexpected combinations of imagery within a piece of work, which results in a characteristic harmony of incoherent elements. In a subtle way, the rational order of things is destabilized.
The final artwork is not the execution of a preconceived idea, but is also determined by the process of making itself. The decisions made in the work are related to the logic that binds together charcoal, image, and narrative. Multiple perspectives, proportions, distances, and styles are used within a single artwork. In drawing ; composition and material use therefore play a major role in the final meaning. The quality of the drawing itself is equal to the subject or representation.
Some series of work have been interpretations of literary origin. There's a series based on the novel 'the Old man and the sea', by Hemingway, a series inspired by 'The island of Bali', by Michael Covarrubias for example.

In general, I could state all of my work has a poetic quality.