27 works, 8 artists, 3 stories
visiting artist Sijbrand.

Each Salon we invite a visiting artist to show new work. We give them a commission to push the limits of the possible. To challenge oneself to take an extra step. During the fourth Salon, Sijbrand was our visiting artist. Working on his notion of evolution and elimination, he wanted to make paintings without a canvas. This is the result:Sijbrand - 2017Also two other artists took up the challenge to add an extra dimension to their work for this Salon. Eirik Jahnsen created a solid hanging framework, making his work really entering the domain of paintings. Willem Besselink, experimented with letting go of the wires in his light works asleep/ awake. The result is a fantastic work, that adjusts the light on your own mood.

The brochure for Salon IV tells all the stories, shows the works, kidsquestions  and some pictures.

Below you can read parts from the Brochure In4Art Salon IV- visiting artist Sijbrand.

Never take something for granted. Keep experimenting. Artists come up with new means and ways to materialize an idea. Of creating painted sculptures, of discoveries in outer space, of reading books. They visualize patterns through innovative uses of matter and form. Transform and remix images to give them renewed relevance.  This helps to look further, beyond the status quo. Step in and let us guide your curiosity ….

The abundance of data
influences on daily life

Are you aware of every breath and step you take? In current society surveillance is embedded everywhere. And then we don’t even talk about the digital footprint: the shadow Google is gladly incorporating. We know that Big Brother is watching us. Livestreaming our contribution away. We do create a lot of information – did you know that we need more than a terabyte to store all trivialities in life? But are we really watching? Data becomes a mirror. How do you turn this data into information, into insight, into something beautiful?

Willem Besselink uses his artwork as a mirror to show the structures of habits and daily routines. He researches the status quo and starts to reimagine it by conducting experiments with matter and form. By using self-imposed instructions he fuels creativity. He is both the observer as the one being observed. The works in the In4Art collection are results from instructions for gathering data on sleep patterns, on transportation modes, on visualizing written colours. He questions how to get a hold of oneself. The outcomes are appealing abstract visual images. All resulting from thorough research. There is no serendipity – data based evidence. You might refer to it as a 21st century self-portrait.

Nas Bami is intrigued by the transfer from offline to online. How to capture this physically? He does so by using symbols, typography and light. At the same time, he thinks about bad connection and being unplugged. To have an environment to let go of control, let go of the information (d)rain. A natural habitat, with happy sunshine, bringing us back to our roots and close to nature. Is this utopian?

Discovering findings
a Eureka moment

Inspiration can come from many sources. From historical facts, physical characteristics of materials, persons you admire. In order to create relevance and put something in a context, create perspective, we build upon the legacy of others. It is the takeaway for new experimentation. Sybren Renema wanted to challenge old and new discoveries. Space shuttles are launched to explore new land, while in history we sailed out to new grounds. He added a camera and a piece of wood, originating from the  ship that Captain Scott used in 1902 to explore the cold Nova Terra, to a shuttle. A camera on top documented the journey and from that video, nine stills were distilled. Showing a parabolic cycle and journey. Can you discover something new from something old?

Some discoveries come after months of practice and noting down learnings. Eirik Jahnsen is inspired by the elaborate transformation process within alchemy. He wants to understand and push the possibilities of the material steering his material to unexpected shapes, colours and forms. The results are appealing iridescent steel paintings, continuously moving and changing. This creates works with multiple faces – showing the duality of a Janus – there is no beginning or ending, just an endless transition. A continuous play between micro effects leading to a whole universe.

Some artist build upon existing universes, others take a retreat in utopian dreamed universes. For Tiwánee van der Horst the vision and works from Hundertwasser are an endless inspiration. As basic elements she uses his spiral course, in which everything moves in circles never to return to the same place. She draws lessons from his imaginative vitality and uniqueness and translates this concept into three dimensional paintings discovering and mastering her own invented technique.

In contrast, Joseph Huot creates a phantasmagorical world. He offers the viewer windows to time travel, sneak peek and explore a world of crazy desires, odd feelings and surreal surroundings. An antidote to gloomy thoughts. Just open the windows and for a moment drop the armour to enter this alternative world. Building upon the humour and legacy of surrealist in the broadest sense. Perhaps you could take the ‘Yellow Submarine’.

What if imagination is not enough and you want action? What if you don’t agree with the standards in our current society? What if you want to have a voice altering the shift of an unrealistic paradigm of beauty? Vermibus discovered a method to manipulate imagers and does so by re-engineering photography. He explores issues of identity, consumerism and advertising mental pollution and is now able to literally change the status quo.

Framed reality
visiting artist Sijbrand

With his work, Sijbrand wants to bring balance and harmony based on evidence based research. He adopts techniques and theories to tell his story: the Rorschach test from psychology, Goethe’s colour analyses, Mondrian’s spiritual pursuit, the mathematical golden ratio as tool for composition. Sijbrand creates his own practices of a meditative process resulting in visual repetition. Patterns are breaking free from prescribed rules making room to create something recognizable from an abstract pattern of paint.

My work is inspired by reality. The formation of an individual’s values in society enables me to create metaphorical mirrors that demonstrate the gap between ‘the truth’ and ‘that which the individual accepts as truth’.”

Sijbrand (b. 1988, The Hague, NL) studied journalism and photographic design. He shortly worked as a graphic designer before dedicating his life to art.  Recently he exhibited in ‘De Fundatie’ and participated in the kickstART.  In all his endeavours, experiments and works, he has used more than 600 liters of paint. Due to a strong self-criticism new bodies of work arise.