A strikingly vivid and contrasting use of colours draws you into the image, where a feeling that is both familiar and eerie takes hold of you. Is it the nature of the image, or the confrontation with ourselves? ‘My work moves between actuality and fiction,’ says Sjaak Kooij. ‘It is based on reality but is not the reality. It’s a mirror of the world in which we live, like a contemporary commedia dell’arte.’