I call a series of brooches Dutch Masters, inspired by the idea that the image we have of a cow has been tilted.
All those idyllic landscape paintings from the 17th century and later show romantic scenes of cows and other cattle: it meant abundance, wealth, the land of milk and butter… after all, agriculture was circular back then.
Now the cow is seen as the culprit with its manure emissions and the associated nitrogen problem.
An image of a cow is placed on the NOS to visualize the nitrogen problem…
While we ourselves have turned the cow into a machine!
The brooches are about then and now.
The starting point is a Dutch master, a painting by a Dutch master from the 17th century or later. For example, I worked with Willem Maris (Rijksmuseum), Adriaen van de Velde (Louvre), Nicolaes Berchem, (private collection UK), Vincent van Gogh (Musee d’Art Moderne, Lille) and Jan Voerman (private collection NL)
I cover a photo of the painting with a piece of convex or concave acrylic, which works like a magnifying glass (or in the case of Maris as a reduction). The painting becomes a shiny gemstone. The image is somewhat concealed, so that the viewer has to do his best to recognize it as an old master.
Around this I compose elements that together tell the above story.
I respond to the painting with an abstract painting on aluminum.
Or I add a piece of cow leather.
Or I use a recent photo of grassland as a counterpart, again ‘set’ in acrylic.
A third element is tactile: gold-embroidered balsa wood or a piece of amber.
I hope to make the viewer think.
