Life is often considered in terms of highs and lows. However, the biggest part of our lives is not dramatic at all. Maybe the essence of our existence lies much more enclosed in the endless stream of insignificant and inconspicuous experiences of everyday life.
If you want to comprehend life, maybe you should look especially at such ‘in between moments’.
Therefore I observe life as it manifests itself in the ‘non-event’.
I photograph or film casual situations from everyday life; an action at a ticket box, movements in an office space, a man getting in a car or people on an escalator. By focussing radically on the unspectacular of such scenes, a kind of mini documentaries arise which bring in sight the so-called ‘condition humaine’.
I zoom in on the moment, define it exactly, and intensify the perception of the image by subtle manipulations. In this manner I shoot black and white photos which I copy very precisely by painting them, after which I photograph the painted scene again. In the final result it is tangible, but not instantly visible that it is a reproduction of a painting. This zooming in, treating and regenerating causes an attention for the image which indeed particularizes the insignificant moment, yet remaining intact the undramatic value of it.
Although my registrations and observations are practically always two dimensional, the plastic dimension of their appearance is important to me. Sometimes they blend in the material and surface of the wall, sometimes they stick out clearly.
To me an image is only finished when it functions in a three dimensional situation or an exhibition.
Therefore initiating exhibitions, presentations and interventions is an essential part of my artistic calling.
In addition JCA DE KOK, the by myself founded and managed art space in the city centre of The Hague, functions as showroom, laboratory and research station.
I search for interaction between my own work, spatial surrounding and the works of other artists in such a way that a certain pattern of interference arises out of stillness and intensity, with emphasis on the inexplicit,
that transfigures in itself and as itself.