ARTIST STATEMENT

My work, for the past five years, has addressed and dealt with the relationship between science and nature. I have mostly interpreted this relationship in terms of conflict; by narrowing down this multifaceted dichotomy I have chosen technology as a manifestation of, as well as a symbol for, science.

At first I collected machine parts which inspired me to design, two-dimensionally and in traditional painting techniques, impossible machines or mechanical devices. By and by, the machine(part)s disappeared and were replaced by the traces, tracks, ruts etc. they have left. I now focus on the changing and changed landscape, particularly the face of “nature” as altered by human intervention. I have come to the conclusion that technology (read: western man) writes or draws into a landscape just like an artist would draw on a sheet of paper – through and with technology forms are assembled and manipulated to compose a kind of environment that suits man’s needs. These landscapes are completely and deliberately artificial, consisting of basic parts drawn from a pool of man-made elements such as dikes, tunnels, excavation holes, roads, fences, walls, etc. Many of my paintings’ titles feature the words "constructed" or "cultivated" to reaffirm this artificiality.