Koen Doodeman interview NON RADAR
In the work of Koen Doodeman metaphor becomes an essential apparatus through which our nebulous human subjectivity can be grasped. Doodeman’s work surveys a glissade between an image and its carrier. It investigates shifts between concrete symbol/signal and decorative abstraction as well as the latent potential of forms between the two to communicate over long distances or be obscured in proximity. In this way, Doodeman creates work through which we can turn inwards and examine our own interpretive mechanisms. As we engage with his bold strokes of intersecting colour we are presented with immersive, interwoven overlays of fabric reminiscent of refracting light and dancing geometry, triggering a dynamism between image and surface. Seams and stitches create a textured patina that grounds the work in its own physicality whilst bestowing considerable visual depth.
Using the tale of St. Veronica we can come to understand his investigations of image and carrier: Emperor Tiberius tasks Veronica with finding Jesus so that he might be cured of Leprosy. She finds Jesus, but he is already en route to Golgotha. Out of sympathy she cleans the blood from his face with her veil and to her astonishment his image is imprinted on the cloth, even the cloth alone cures the emperor. The nature of this artefact is disputed, forming the basis of an investigation: whether one can portray God, that God in this case allowed it or whether Jesus himself existed within the veil. For Doodeman, this “Vera-Icon” or “True-Image” is a turning point connecting opposites: image as illusion of reality and material itself. In weaving and patchwork image and carrier are indistinct, oscillating between the two: one foot in reality another in illusion.
Represented by: Galerie Gerhard Hofland