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Desire or Destiny? |
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Do Theo Voorzaat's paintings convey a sense of despondency? One only needs to look around oneself in everyday life to know that all this human brooding frequently elicits sighs of admiration.
When you look in the mirror, surely you don't think "Gosh, that's mankind staring back at me"? So, if Voorzaat's work hints at the evident existence of some kind of plural of peers calling down misfortune upon us, you'll probably nod in agreement - with which you would imply in a roundabout manner that you are aware what isn't the done thing while appreciating at the same time that it's only in the eyes of your peers that the proof of your being in the right will ever be rendered airtight.
After all, it remains very much to be seen whether mankind on average resigns to its fate. It is not until that with which we've always been familiar is placed beyond our reach that we start to yearn to have it back, and so it's essential that we should cause this and that to go wrong first. This is precisely what Voorzaat's work is all about. It's in the twilight zone between apathy and desire, between hindsight and foresight, that he makes his brushes perform their intricate dance, that the shimmer of hope emits its near-impartial glow, in conjunction with obstinacy and reason. As if the truth, in spite of everything, permits a degree of trickery. Koen Nieuwendijk |