Statement

My questions are directed towards cultural identity, continuity, the vulnerability of the individual, and finally towards the global consciousness of cultural differences and peculiarities. The change of perspective inherent in my working technique corresponds with this perception: the "scanogram" is a term that alludes to a direct technique in analogy to the history of photography (cf. "photogram"). Constructed to digitize documents, the scanner has neither lens nor focus. It only knows juxtaposition. It feels its way forward with indifferent precision. Everything that is superficial is equally bright and sharp, everything that goes deeper loses itself in the dark without perspective. He is as immoderate as he is presumptuous. It is a contemporary instrument. (Werner Knoedgen) Over the years I have worked with a variety of media including drawing, performance, video and sculpture. In 1995 I started working with industrial scanners and experimented with everything that seemed suitable for scanning until I came across tulips – a common theme in baroque still life painting, especially in the Netherlands. The meaning of flowers depends on the cultural context of the viewer. I am very interested in the diversity and plurality of perceptions in relation to their different cultural heritage. Social identity in the age of globalization can be seen as a transcultural phenomenon and as a confrontation with Western colonialism and imperialism. I have great respect for nature and the environment. Much of my work is based on samples from nature in given contexts, such as my research project in the Amazon forest. Artistically, I concentrate mainly on color effects that tend towards painting.