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"I
believe that art should reflect
the social conditions of our times, which
include rapid dehumanization and a loss
of individual identity. Art should also go
forward to change those conditions, to
lead, to teach and to set an example.
An artist should hold
highly a sense
of responsibility to others. Therefore,
my figurative, narrative installations
are a social didactic -- raising questions
and searching for answers. While my
installation are a record of our time,
they are also an observation on the
universal human condition.
In the language of
my narrative
installations, each character is an icon
for an emotional or physical state,
or for an action. Hence their names:
Scolder, Victim, Antagonist and the like.
More important than the individual
characters/symbols is their integration
into groupings, which allows for complex
investigations of many sides of a topic
at once.
These installations
deal with issues
of personal and social responsibility
and focus on four major themes: sexism,
racism, ageism, and eliteism. Depending
on where, when and how these characters
are arranged, different issues are
explored. As characters are combined
in different arrangements, their meanings
can change, as well as their individual
and group titles.
In order to reach
a broad public, I use
the historical and permanent medium of
figurative bronze sculpture. Sculpture
takes up our physical space and does not
rely on written or spoken language for
the communication of ideas. Sculpture
is its own language, made up of an
infinite number of visual and tactile
elements.
I have made the figures
unclothed to
allow them to be independent of past,
present and future references. Without
clothing, and the psychological
protection it affords, the naked truth
and our fragility as humans can be revealed.
Body type, gesture, abstraction, and
sexuality are elements I use to communicate
through my work. I have intentionally
played down the classical notions of
beauty in order to focus on emotional
and interactive qualities.
Viewers filter my
work through their
own perceptions, and therefore their
interpertations may be quite different
from mine. I provoke the interpreter to
dialogue. This dialogue goes beyond expressing
my opinions. It invites and reveals the
opinions of the viewers; in this way, it
is like a Rorschach ink blot test.
The majority of my
characters are archetypal
in order to leave room for such
interpretation. I have also created
specific political characters who are of
our time, but who, in the long view of
history, will themselves become archetypal."
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