Carefully arranging fragments – because perceiving the whole is not obvious. After all, the complexity of the systems around us demands a lot from the imagination, or perhaps a high degree of docile acceptance. Not only because (large parts of) the systems around are not visible, but precisely because the meaning of what is visible cannot be grasped unambiguously.
My work aims to reveal affective sensations – not just take or incorporate but provide space for the affect. I perceive our surrounding as consisting of objects of mediation. We are surrounded by objects that mediate our thoughts, movements, and feelings. The traffic light, the zebra crossing, the type of ear on a teacup, the painting, the sculpture. Like it or not, we are directed by our environment - and to me this environment oftentimes feels hostile. Central to this perspective are questions about materiality, function, agency and affect. How does the interaction between subject and object function? In public space: when does protection turn into oppression? How does the form and materiality of objects of mediation influence their function? How can we understand our environment with all its complexity while trying to maintain autonomy? And, in particular, how are these questions related to the artwork and the exhibition space?
In my practice I’m addressing these questions by challenging our representational understanding of matter. Therefore, I’m currently working with materials that have undergone a cultural intervention making them a representation. My practice is mostly pointed towards painting. The steps I take leading to a painting can be sculptural or installation based. I’m using materials such as acrylic and oil paints, linen, (heavy) metals, resins, plaster and readymades - I observe, gather, transform. Readymade paintings and sculptures I find wherever I go. By using (interpretations of) objects of mediation in paintings and sculptures I attempt to understand our relation to them through performativity and even more so disarm or undermine them. We’re living in ‘toxic’ times. I write the latter with a healthy level of cynicism, and I’m working on moving beyond what these materials and significations rationally mean and see how they relate to the sensational and are reflected in the artwork. Why are the above questions important to pose within a studio practice? Because the nimble movements by which a composition breaks free from the scheme of its construction can make an artwork really come to life.

TIJN HENDRIKUS GERARDS