"People want to retire from themselves and escape from their humanity, instead of changing in angels, they change in animals, instead of rising above themself, they lower themselves. We strive for other qualities, because we do not understand how to cope with our own and try to escape from ourselves, because we do not know what is inside of us. We can walk on stilts, but we still have to walk on our own legs, And even if we sit on the highest throne, we still have to sit on our own arse.” *1
I see my work as a contemporary version of the collection of curiosities/” Kunst-und Wunderkammer” from the Renaissance. In the Renaissance, collections were assembled like a miniature reflection of the world. The collections showed all aspects of the cosmos and the main purpose of those collections was to show the bilateral cohesion between objects. It was common to connect different objects with each other. For example; a rare tooth combined with a golden welded setting. The objects could be linked by material or form, but also by their symbolic or allegoric meaning. The “Kunst-und Wunderkammers could be interpreted as “meaning machines, where the objects with their bilateral closeness ignite a chain of a meaning”. The Renaissance collections of curiosities were to show the grandeur of the creation of the world. The wonders of nature. The biggest difference with those collections is that not the existence of a higher power shines through my work, but only a human, animal side,wandering and changing. *²
*1. Michael de Montaigne. essays. E 1320-1 *² pieces taken from the Syllabus: Geschiedenis van Kunst en Cultuur blz 92-93 Prof. dr M.E Halbertsma.
