Jaapphotos

20HOXTONSQUARE

Jaap De Vries press release
“The only body of importance to us is the human body and the awareness of death and the darkness
that comes with it.” (Jaap de Vries)

In this statement Jaap de Vries expresses a choice to give a central position to the human body,
but its not looking at the body from the outside but exploring it from within. What is specific
about the human body is its link to the awareness of death, which gives depth to the physical
and anatomical aspects within his work. Our human bodies are penetrated by our conscious minds
and the question is; how do our minds deal with the physical?

In Jaap’s work there is a very interesting game played between the interior and exterior. The
interior being the part that feels, loves, fears, reflects and judges, the exterior being the
organic and material which pulsates, stretches, rips and decays.

The use of cold, sterile aluminium skies and water channels refrigerates the warm paper tree
trunks and leafy detail, whose shapes and angles drag the viewer back inside through common
anatomical detail. Some paintings show bodies that have been ripped, cut, mutilated and seem to
destroy the human, living aspect of the body. This disturbs the viewer as it generates a
surgical, static representation of humanity and creates a unanimous reminder of death in the
form of faceless flesh. A viewer’s negative reaction or shock is a belief that they are being
subjected to a visual attack from the artist. In truth, however the rejection and negativity is
the result of subconscious awareness versus a conscious denial.

The anatomical focus serves to unite the relationship between the painting as a body, the artist
who paints with his body and the viewers’ awareness of their own body.

By this, the painting process is an experience lived within artist’ flesh. While he is painting,
he experiments with his own flesh. This organic experience is manifested by a brutal an
aggressive presence that cannot be staged. The execution itself is of prime importance as it
destroys the invasion of any preconceived outcome and is truly driven by a fundamental desire to
release internal tensions.

The material he works with is treated like flesh to which he cuts like skin. In his watercolours
we can see marks of alteration that have affected the paper physically and that like our own
bodies have been subjected to the effects of time and decay and show the capacity to heal. The
marks that appear are like beautiful accidents and remind the observer of the uncontrolled
dimension of the physical.

In Jaap’s work there is no need for explanation. No detours, no headlines, no safety box of
moving images, no commercial break or direct escape. His works are real objects in real spaces.
To feel something in front of Jaap’s art is not a choice.

20 Hoxton Square exhibition will be open from 7th September to 21st October 2007.

Jaap De Vries September 2007