THIJS SEGERS
In my paintings I express my awe for nature, where I find inspiration in the endless finiteness of things. I embrace the decay, the eternal value of the cycle of bloom and collapse. Dry, desolate landscapes accompany enlarged representations of withered nature. In the paint apparently everyday scenes arise, but they transcend their origin and turn into alienated scenes in which acceptance accompanies hopelessness. The works together form several poems from my own Danse Macabre. Painting reconciles me with existence.
CAROLEIN SMIT
The charming work of Carolein Smit is easy on the eyes. She uses a visual language that alludes to cabinets of curiosities; collection of scientific, religious, anatomical studies. These collections are for her, an attempt to explain mysterious phenomena, why is there life and where do we come from? They challenge the normative ways of being in the world. In their deviations, they classify the weird, the rare, to maintain the scientific order and security. At the same time, the sculptures warn of the chaos that will arise as soon if the proposed order is released. They contain images that both frighten and ward off fear, a beautiful ambivalence.
CAROLEIN SMIT
In her work, the dilemmas between chaos and order exist as a complicated knot of conflicting messages. The sculptures evoke the turning-point where seriousness becomes melodramatic, beauty turns into overkill and love becomes hate. The subjects render a subtle balance between irritation and intrigue. Smit’s images are about that emotional short circuit; about the tension between guilt and innocence, power and impotence, life and death. About our attempts to clearly separate pole and opposite pole while almost everything is born out of clumsiness, chance and misunderstanding. We now live in a world that has many beautiful but also very difficult sides.