Right now I’m staring at a bowl with about a hundred different stones in it that serves the desired decorative effect. Some are sideways and some are upside-down. They are made out of the same material but none of them really are the exact same, even though it seems so at first glance. If you look closely enough you find one has more air bubbles or the other has more shine. They are just like us.
Every one of us has the fundamental parts chin, mouth, nose and two eyes. Isn’t it weird then that we all look so different? Not only do I mean our exterior but also our interior. Just like the stones one person is more bubbly then the other, one more unrefined then the next. Some stones have broken pieces off each other by friction and others seem to be unharmed. Our dissimilarities and more importantly our imbalances create an inspirational platform for art.
An artist that has used our differences to create beautiful art works is Niels Broszat. With his series New York he portrays people by putting emphasis on the things they wear and the way they behave. He chooses to portray someone by looking at their outside and leaves away the fundamental parts I mentioned before we all have.
I stumbled upon him when I went to visit the exhibition Royal Awards for Painting 2011 at the Royal Palace Amsterdam. He wasn’t one of the winners but his painting ‘Inside Nascar Speedway’ never left my mind.
I thought it was fantastic with all the colors and the amount of attention paid on the details of the person portrayed. The contrast between the flat looking hat and the cloudy flow hanging beneath it with much more dept has been a deliberate decision made by the artist. It reminds me of how easily we can judge something just by appearance. How we comfortably fill in blanks without really having any verification.
All of us should feel blessed that we are so different from the other, and should enhance this, as it is our strength. It takes courage to be what you are and in many scenarios it’s scary. Personally, I’m still developing the confidence but I’ll get there. I think art would have had a hard time surviving if everything was the same.
© dumpjekunst 2011, op dit artikel rust copyright.
Sascha Krom, email: saschakrom(at)hotmail.com