An introduction
Growing up in the heyday of science fiction movies, I’ve always been fascinated by the unreal, by things that could be if one chose to believe in them. All technology feels magical if it is not commonplace. The approach of the Science fiction series is firstly sculptural: I create things by adding together primitives, modelling sensuous curves, and then combining them with “found” digital objects. Then the composition becomes graphical (centring, balancing, and so on), meaning the three dimensional is arranged with a virtual camera. The choice and assembling aims to create constructions that are at once mundane and extraordinary. The “materiality” is wilfully reduced, the objects are reminiscent of precious porcelain figurines, collectibles from another era. Science fiction is in this way ironic, more honestly fiction, and scientific only in the method of production: raytracing, GPU accelerated biased rendering, subsurface scattering, HDR lighting, and all the other technical (science fiction?) “stuff” involved in computer generated imagery. These considerations are meant to remain invisible, the result should be believable, not flashy nor technical, just “scientific”—as in sober.
The background and lighting is inspired by product photography, reminiscent of documentation techniques. As mentioned, the result is intended to be commonplace, maybe even boring.
The main part of the Science fiction series are the 80 cm by 80 cm compositions (19-5, 20‑12, 21‑1, and 21‑12 sequences, as well as 21‑11A) and comprises 25 pieces. The other works and formats can be seen as sketches and explorations that focus on a particular aspect (form or colour, for example) or test out the production techniques in terms of size and resolution (e.g. moiré effects arising from fine lines).
Aphorisms
The digital objects, a parergon or by-product, however are in fact just a medium for the aphorisms. The central aspect, the ergon, of each piece is the textual content that provides context and expands the visual meaning. The tension within the ergon/ parergon pairing is a topic of much of my work, but here this tension becomes the prime effect of each piece. The contrast (inter- or intra-textual) between the aphorism and it’s typographical aesthetic and the object that “transports” this invites the viewer to reflect. The typography is at times bold and central, in other pieces almost marginal, secondary, hardly legible or negligible.
I’ve been collecting “sayings” for years, sometimes paraphrased from packaging or advertising, sometimes a lesson learnt from life, sometimes blatantly stolen from literature. The aphorisms are self-explanatory (perhaps self-evident or even obvious) but intend to retain an aspect of mysteriousness and ubiquitous relevance. Some are always true, some situational. Some comment on the viewer, but all comment on my desire to continuously improve myself.
As with all my works, the science fiction series is decorative. It seems to me that our world is complex enough as it is, and doesn’t require further complexity hanging on walls. I feel challenged enough with what’s going on and therefore want art to provide a refuge from this, a fiction. Even more so, the series is playful, mixing campy (or even decadent) aesthetics with classical beauty. The tension between visual contents and textual contents are indeed sometimes challenging or even caustic (“Not knowing what I want makes me get nothing”, for example), but this tension arises over a longer reflection, almost meditative contemplation, and not through a quick thrilling shock. Sometimes a long term realisation is more shocking anyway.
| Life | 18-5 | A |
21 x 21 x 3
| Fork | 18-5 | B |
| Buddha | 19-5 | A |
| Dragon | 19-5 | B |
| Medea | 19-5 | C1 (yellow coral) C2 (pink blue) |
| Dwarf | 19-5 | D |
| Shields | 19-5 | E |
80 x 80
| Find out | 19-5 | F |
147 x 21
| Apollo | 19-5 | G |
| Superfilou | 19-5 | H |
| Tausendsass’a | 19-5 | I |
| The bard (megaphone) | 20-12 | A |
| Ball | 20-12 | B |
| Lectron | 20-12 | C |
| Cleo | 21-1 | A |
| Tulip pyramid | 21-1 | B |
80 x 80
| Bad poetry | 21-6 | A-F |
| Tubular love | 21-7 | A |
21 x 21
| Samurai (sketch Opis) | 21-11 | A |
| Cleo 2 | 21-12 | A |
| Ajax (Bust 2B) | 21-12 | B |
| Philosopher | 21-12 | C |
| Boy 1 | 21-12 | D |
| Boy 2 | 21-12 | E |
| Woman 1 | 21-12 | F |
| Woman 2 | 21-12 | G |
| Woman 3 | 21-12 | H |
| Man | 21-12 | I |
80 x 80