Chaos

The SERIES

In this series, I try to discover the order in chaos. At first glance, these paintings seem utterly chaotic, rejecting, even denying, any order: the various animal and human figures blend together, their bodies and faces distorted, as if melting into a grotesque and nightmarish mass. As flesh is stretched against flesh, all hierarchy disappears, the whole canvas becomes a stinking smoothie. The sweeping brushwork, thick layers of paint and flowing lines add to this feeling, while the fleshed-out beastly bodies and unsettling facial expressions add to the sense of disarray.

Despite all this, a certain order can be detected. The focal points of the compositions guide the viewer’s gaze, helping to interpret the images. The lines, although at first sight chaotic, form a kind of hidden network that connects the individual forms. The subjects of these mass scenes live in symbiosis with each other, their bodies and fates seem to be intertwined with each other. There is no escape for them, but without their fellow beings their very existence would cease.

The balance I find in my work evokes the fragile order of nature, where there is always an inner logic behind the apparent chaos. Underneath the interlocking flesh, sinews and bones lies a deeper system that keeps life itself in motion, as well as the painting. Fears and absolutions, desires and failures. We are all partners in life’s endless slaughter, struggling with each other but also dependent on each other. It is an existence in which emotions, thoughts and memories are constantly forming, intertwining and distorting, yet somehow forming a system, because this woeful waltz called life also contains a beauty: this is what I wanted to paint.