Artist Statement

One of the recurrent concepts of my work is the transformation of energy. In this transformation there is always a benefit but also a sacrifice. The cow symbolises this transformation. It completes an energetic circle with the soil. It is also the starting point for a human created industry (nature - man); an industry that gives rise to society, the interchange of energy and the distribution of work (man - society). Most of my prints contains this idea, also included in some of my paintings. (Click on the images to enlarge them)

A step further occurs when the final transformation is not into a physical object but into knowledge, concepts, ideas. It no longer represents man directly in connection with his surroundings, but in a more abstract stage in the transformation of energy for the benefit of society.

Society needs the individual for the energy transformation. This leads to a dialogue between crowd and intimacy in which the crowd is usually a menace for the intimacy. Thus, in the work entitled Individual and Society; desecration, society is represented by cows, as they always stand in a group, whereas the object Bed-wardrobe-coffin symbolise the intimacy. This object contradicts itself. It is birth (bed), a life-time of accumulation (wardrobe), but it is also death (coffin).

The last stage in the energy transformation is death. This is not accepted by man who looks for a refuge. The house becomes then a shelter in its defence of intimacy. A different kind of refuge is the crowd (usually represented in my work as flocks or grouped cows). Through the repetition, it reasserts its members, not limiting but emphasising their identity. The same as a shelter implies rest; also the crowd provides confidence to its parts. Therefore, the crowd, which is a menace for intimacy, can also be a refuge.