Hendrik Van Doorn
"My work -in a nutshell- might be called a ‘staged’ representation of a certain reality, or moreover :
A certain condition. My sources of inspiration are various : Obscure movies from the ‘70’s, taxidermy
sites, instruction video’s from the past, X-mas home movies, You-tube fail clips etc… not knowing
what I’m looking for, but recognizing the needle in the haystack when I encounter it.
Pure form and it’s appealing qualities, that’s where it all starts. Most of the images I use are linked with the past, not because of nostalgic reasons, but aesthetical purpose .
Lifting these images out of their original content, I start cropping them, highlighting contrasts, pulling apart colour balances.
Prints are often reprinted through old-fashioned colour copy machines, thus carrying the original
Image through different ways of manipulation. When that is done, half of the job is behind me.
Every painting made, builds additional meaning. Gradually, it becomes clear what kind of universe
I’m actually constructing. Not really understanding what I’m truly dealing with at the very moment
of creation, is kind of essential to my way of working : I am confident a certain coherence will merge, as every work finds itself on a time-line, looking back to what has been done as well as building the consequence for what will be my next move.
Elements, conditions and themes occur and reoccur with every additional work made. Subjects, often overexposed for instance. People as well as animals -often badly stuffed- find themselves captured accidentally, even lost sometimes, in my paintings.
Or, on the contrary, delicately represented in a setting which reminds us of some old
fashioned diorama. The almost photo-realistic exists near the desintegrated image.
Every image used as a starting point for a painting, dictates how the subject will be represented.
I like to sacrifice unity of style for the sake of search, allowing different kinds of styles and incoherence as a tool for progress. One closed system seems too questionable , too easy to me.
Also, when a certain content,or style keeps on finding it’s way in a consequent matter for the duration of several paintings, I allow this as well. It’s a bit like shaking hands with a stranger, who might be an occasional passer-by, as well as a long lasting friend. And everything in between."
Hendrik Van Doorn, june 6th 2021.
