the self portrait from 2014
The 'mind' and the 'body' can not be separated from each other. The body has mental dimensions and the mind is physical in our human being, in us as "rational animals." It is hard to imagine that your mind exists without your body, or vice versa. We know that damage to the brain can result in a fundamental change in character, or can bring about an inability in thought processes or understanding. And also: it seems that the composition of the intestinal flora can give rise to depressive thoughts and emotions. With this inescapable unity of body and mind, perception and understanding can also not be separated from each other.
In the art of portraiture the natural perception of time and space is altered, without separating these dimensions from each other. By this I mean: we see the person portrayed in one image, without this perception developing over time. In a photographic portrait one single moment has been recorded. In a painting or drawing different moments of perception and experience are captured by the maker in one picture, and these are presented to the viewer - at once - in a two-dimensional plane. The person portrayed is presented without this presentation changing over time. At any given moment we can return to the portrait and observe and experience the exact same thing again.
The spatiality of the person portrayed has been reduced to the dimensions of the plane. The spatiality of the person portrayed might be depicted illusionistically in such a portrait. In cubist portraits different views are combined in one image. Yet the assembly of views remain showing itself fixated, as different moments in perception and experience by the maker, presented without development and coherence. The 'prism' of spatiality is shown simultaneously in separate moments, which exist at the same time side by side. The spatiality is fragmented in the two-dimensional image.
In the work of Alberto Giacometti, he fixates his perception and experience of the person portrayed during the period of modelling, in layers of drawing actions: lines that have been put on and over the previous lines with each observation. A conglomerate of fixations of observations is created. The existence of the person portrayed appears through the 'curtain' of all those fixations. Here, time has been fragmented and moments are superimposed on and over each other, and through it appears the 'being' of the person portrayed during the time of observation and capture. Giacometti deliberately does not attempt to reconcile these different moments into a coherent image. He does not choose, but lets all perceptions and actions remain visible separetely over and in each other.
In a sculptural portrait, several moments of perception and experience by the maker are also captured and fixated. And here too, these are presented to the viewer - at once - but with the addition of the third dimension: the spatiality. Various observations of the person portrayed are presented in one moment, and that moment smears the viewer in his subsequent 'moments' of contemplation. This consideration is not actually a stack of separate moments, but a flowing experience, over a course of natural time. However, the portrait does not change during a natural course of time: it remains fixated in time.
In this self-portrait I wanted to bring the experience of the artistic genre of the (self) portrait closer to the natural experience of a person 'in the world', through the use of a time-based medium. But yet continue to 'capture' the person, to fixate in time, to keep his 'being' during a certain period of his existence, to manifest and (re)present his being. After all, this fixation is the artistic work that separates the work from the maker, from the time and place in which it was made, so that it can 'speak' autonomously in all times and places. The work therefore had to be and remain a portrait as the artistic genre, but at the same time bring closer the natural and physical being, and understanding, of a person in the world within the work. This portrait should not shatter space in separate moments like in a cubist portrait. And I also did not want to hide time behind a curtain of fixations over and on top of each other, as Giacometti has shown.
After all, as people we are bodies in a physical world, we 'are' in time and space. We are different to ourselves than the lifeless objects with which we share our space, and than the lifeless spaces that surround us. Others are in a different way 'in the world' to us, than lifeless 'beings' are. But still different from ourselves. But the latter 'being different' is a 'being' that mirrors our own being and thus comes close to our own being. There are those who say that we find and become ourselves in relation to others. In other words, the space we experience and occupy is always charged with meaning in relation to ourselves and to each other.
When we meet, the experience of the other is not there at once. But here as well, there also really are no moments, because time flows. There is no present, because this is already flowing into the present that follows, in an endless stream. We observe the space that the other occupies while we ourselves are in that same space. We get to know the other through his moving in time and space. Our perception of the other is never finished. We see the other from different angles, while he moves in time and space. We perceive the other, but our perception is shaped by our attention. We observe details, but also the whole. The attention 'jumps'.
By using a time-based medium I was able to capture the spatiality of the portrayed in time. I did not show the different views after or behind each other, but through each other and overflowing without using the chronology as a structural principle. The portrait remains a stack of fixations of observations, but every fixation consists of a slipping time. There is not just one fixation, and each fixation is a development over time in itself. With this, existence in time is expressed in a different way than in other portraits, and it approaches in this way the natural and physical perception. The self-portrait 2014 is not a portrait that comes to you at one time and to which you can easily return again and again, without it being changed. It is made in such a way that it withdraws from the imaging (of the person portrayed) at once. Like 'in real life'.
The existence in space, the spaciousness, I made visible in the different views that flow over into each other and to which I keep returning in different orders and for different durations. Thus the existence in space comes closer to the natural perception of persons, in a different way than in other portraits. Because it is made from video recordings, fixations of time spans, the preservative element of the work remains functioning. The artistic moment of fixation, making the work autonomous from the maker in time and space, remains working in the final assembly. It is and remains a portrait, a work of art, it approaches natural perception and experience, but it does not coincide with it.
The attention that steers observation is deliberately crossed by a few shots of details. Where the different views of the head always have the same placement in the image, the details, suddenly, come up differently. With this conscious 'error' I hoped to make the viewer aware of the attention that guides his perception in his understanding of what he sees. A viewer always does this in a natural way, but unconsciously. It is natural that we occasionally zoom in on details with our attention when we meet or get to know someone else. Actually this happens at every moment that we observe the world. The shock of the details breaks the expectation in the self-portrait. Attention is again determined and made aware of.
In the art of portraiture the natural perception of time and space is altered, without separating these dimensions from each other. By this I mean: we see the person portrayed in one image, without this perception developing over time. In a photographic portrait one single moment has been recorded. In a painting or drawing different moments of perception and experience are captured by the maker in one picture, and these are presented to the viewer - at once - in a two-dimensional plane. The person portrayed is presented without this presentation changing over time. At any given moment we can return to the portrait and observe and experience the exact same thing again.
The spatiality of the person portrayed has been reduced to the dimensions of the plane. The spatiality of the person portrayed might be depicted illusionistically in such a portrait. In cubist portraits different views are combined in one image. Yet the assembly of views remain showing itself fixated, as different moments in perception and experience by the maker, presented without development and coherence. The 'prism' of spatiality is shown simultaneously in separate moments, which exist at the same time side by side. The spatiality is fragmented in the two-dimensional image.
In the work of Alberto Giacometti, he fixates his perception and experience of the person portrayed during the period of modelling, in layers of drawing actions: lines that have been put on and over the previous lines with each observation. A conglomerate of fixations of observations is created. The existence of the person portrayed appears through the 'curtain' of all those fixations. Here, time has been fragmented and moments are superimposed on and over each other, and through it appears the 'being' of the person portrayed during the time of observation and capture. Giacometti deliberately does not attempt to reconcile these different moments into a coherent image. He does not choose, but lets all perceptions and actions remain visible separetely over and in each other.
In a sculptural portrait, several moments of perception and experience by the maker are also captured and fixated. And here too, these are presented to the viewer - at once - but with the addition of the third dimension: the spatiality. Various observations of the person portrayed are presented in one moment, and that moment smears the viewer in his subsequent 'moments' of contemplation. This consideration is not actually a stack of separate moments, but a flowing experience, over a course of natural time. However, the portrait does not change during a natural course of time: it remains fixated in time.
In this self-portrait I wanted to bring the experience of the artistic genre of the (self) portrait closer to the natural experience of a person 'in the world', through the use of a time-based medium. But yet continue to 'capture' the person, to fixate in time, to keep his 'being' during a certain period of his existence, to manifest and (re)present his being. After all, this fixation is the artistic work that separates the work from the maker, from the time and place in which it was made, so that it can 'speak' autonomously in all times and places. The work therefore had to be and remain a portrait as the artistic genre, but at the same time bring closer the natural and physical being, and understanding, of a person in the world within the work. This portrait should not shatter space in separate moments like in a cubist portrait. And I also did not want to hide time behind a curtain of fixations over and on top of each other, as Giacometti has shown.
After all, as people we are bodies in a physical world, we 'are' in time and space. We are different to ourselves than the lifeless objects with which we share our space, and than the lifeless spaces that surround us. Others are in a different way 'in the world' to us, than lifeless 'beings' are. But still different from ourselves. But the latter 'being different' is a 'being' that mirrors our own being and thus comes close to our own being. There are those who say that we find and become ourselves in relation to others. In other words, the space we experience and occupy is always charged with meaning in relation to ourselves and to each other.
When we meet, the experience of the other is not there at once. But here as well, there also really are no moments, because time flows. There is no present, because this is already flowing into the present that follows, in an endless stream. We observe the space that the other occupies while we ourselves are in that same space. We get to know the other through his moving in time and space. Our perception of the other is never finished. We see the other from different angles, while he moves in time and space. We perceive the other, but our perception is shaped by our attention. We observe details, but also the whole. The attention 'jumps'.
By using a time-based medium I was able to capture the spatiality of the portrayed in time. I did not show the different views after or behind each other, but through each other and overflowing without using the chronology as a structural principle. The portrait remains a stack of fixations of observations, but every fixation consists of a slipping time. There is not just one fixation, and each fixation is a development over time in itself. With this, existence in time is expressed in a different way than in other portraits, and it approaches in this way the natural and physical perception. The self-portrait 2014 is not a portrait that comes to you at one time and to which you can easily return again and again, without it being changed. It is made in such a way that it withdraws from the imaging (of the person portrayed) at once. Like 'in real life'.
The existence in space, the spaciousness, I made visible in the different views that flow over into each other and to which I keep returning in different orders and for different durations. Thus the existence in space comes closer to the natural perception of persons, in a different way than in other portraits. Because it is made from video recordings, fixations of time spans, the preservative element of the work remains functioning. The artistic moment of fixation, making the work autonomous from the maker in time and space, remains working in the final assembly. It is and remains a portrait, a work of art, it approaches natural perception and experience, but it does not coincide with it.
The attention that steers observation is deliberately crossed by a few shots of details. Where the different views of the head always have the same placement in the image, the details, suddenly, come up differently. With this conscious 'error' I hoped to make the viewer aware of the attention that guides his perception in his understanding of what he sees. A viewer always does this in a natural way, but unconsciously. It is natural that we occasionally zoom in on details with our attention when we meet or get to know someone else. Actually this happens at every moment that we observe the world. The shock of the details breaks the expectation in the self-portrait. Attention is again determined and made aware of.