19 november 2024, Wouter van den Eijkel
Copilot, Voice and Vision
With Copilot, Voice and Vision, Berend Strik is embarking on a new chapter. His latest work is based on personal photographs, which, of course, he has embroidered. The exhibition also includes four pieces from the Deciphering the Artist’s Mind series.
Many artists might hesitate to display work from two series simultaneously, especially when combining ongoing projects with new ones. A single, cohesive concept or defined period is generally easier to explain, but Berend Strik (born in the Netherlands in 1960) finds this dynamic interesting. "I have a tendency to not fixate on a single point. I want to show the transition towards more personal works. That shift between series is equally, if not more, fascinating."
Berend Strik, Deciphering The Artist's Mind, Vincent van Gogh, Het Gele Huis, 2024, courtesy the artist and Galerie Fons Welters. Photo by: Gunnar Meier
New work from the ongoing Deciphering the Artist’s Mind series is on display. For this series, Strik visits and photographs a fellow artist’s studio as part of his creative process. Copilot, Voice and Vision includes the Swiss retreat where Michelangelo spent a year in exile, as well as the location of Van Gogh's studio in Arles.
In the new series, each work begins with a photograph or drawing from Strik's private archive. His focus is not on himself, but on the universality of ‘constructed memory’. “Everyone has a photo of themselves as a baby or of grandparents they never knew. I find it interesting when you see something that creates a memory. By editing an image like this, you make that tangible.”
“Being an artist is also a process of working through things. There’s a fine line between childhood and growing up, between letting go and holding on, between thinking and doing.”
Berend Strik, Copilot, Voice and Vision, 2024, courtesy the artist and Galerie Fons Welters. Photo by: Gunnar Meier
Mustard yellow rubber boat
One of the images he has worked with shows a boy sunbathing on the edge of a mustard yellow rubber boat. "I'm convinced that your work should connect with your own experience. When you look at something that relates to you, it can resonate more deeply." The boy in the photo is Strik himself at the age of around five, on holiday in Italy with his parents.
“It’s a childhood memory, the protected environment of youth. You felt the warmth of the sun and the rubber’s cushion against the water. There are many associations tied to such a memory, things you can sense directly from an image. Everyone has memories of a time when things still felt fun and carefree.”
Broadening our focusThroughout his career, Strik has worked in various media, from photography to drawings, stained glass, ceramics, sculpture and music theatre. But he enjoys his greatest freedom when working with needle and thread.
While at the Rijksakademie between 1985 and 1988, Strik explored alternative storytelling methods. “At that time, Dutch art focused mainly on formal aspects. Shouldn’t we be broadening our focus?”
This search took him to Hungary, his grandfather’s homeland, where he observed men embroidering vests, blouses and tablecloths in shops. “I just loved how they added colour and shape through embroidery, but what they made wasn’t considered art.” Since then, embroidery has been central to his work. Strik doesn’t consider himself a textile artist, but rather someone who uses stitching as a medium.
Berend Strik, Berend Strik, Mama Monster, 2024, courtesy the artist and Galerie Fons Welters. Photo by: Gunnar Meier
Lack of consistent logic
The first piece you encounter in the main space at Fons Welters Gallery is titled Mama Monster (2024). It’s based on a painting of a yellow duck that Strik’s mother once made for his newborn son. “It was a frightening painting of a yellow duck with hard eyes.”
Strik photographed the painting, printed it on fabric and embroidered it partly by hand and partly by machine. The result is no longer frightening, but has a dynamic energy with flowing lines and densely stitched circles. A trained eye can discern where Strik intervened—where he held the fabric against the machine’s movement or adjusted the stitch length. The effect makes his embroidery resemble a drawing or painting more than something stitched for a garment or curtain. There’s a unique signature in his work. “People often tell me these aren’t embroidered photos, but rather lean toward painting.”
Beside it hangs an infrared photograph Strik edited of a work by Karel Appel, with Appel's signature still faintly visible. There may not be a consistent logic behind it, but these two pieces feel perfectly paired.
Copilot, Voice and Vision featuring work by Berend Strik can be seen at Galerie Fons Welters through 21 December.
Berend Strik, Berend Strik, Mama Monster, 2024, courtesy the artist and Galerie Fons Welters. Foto door: Gunnar Meier
