What Is Now Proved Was Once Only Imagined

Overview of the 3 works I have on display
during the graduation exhibit

In the appendix of my diploma the teachers added a little note saying they experienced the process and presentation of my work open and direct, making it a very daring contribution. I smiled and signed the documents making a mental note to look up the word 'daring'. These little words are very important, and I prefer to fully grasp their meaning. So I looked it up... this is what the dictionary has to say about daring...

 DARING:

1. A challenge to do something dangerous or foolhardy. Synonyms: Dare.
2. The trait of being willing to undertake things that involve risk or danger. Synonyms: Boldness, Hardihood.
3. Radically new or original. Synonyms: Avant-garde.

The blown up photograph from my performance with my head in a box of earth,
it made people stop in their tracks 

I'm glad that I looked it up. Because even though I show two photographs that are registrations of a performance, every piece that is on display demands a specific approach. Making it for some people hard to believe they are made by one person. There is my thesis subject again: The Human Need To Order The World. All the pieces come together, the puzzle provides an overview of my visual langue. I never imagined that my graduation exhibit would look like this; an intricate web of connected bulbs of interest. 

Artist Statement: 

Close-up from the Bisons head

Everything around me is tension, attraction and repulsion. I prefer to work with these energies for they provide a challenge for myself and the viewer. Once a boundary is crossed it relocates itself and needs to be examined again. My work explores multiple media and is eclectic by nature. It might be recognisable by its tangible discommode or its excessive adoration for the Happily Ever After. But in that interdisciplinary universe I work with recurring themes concerning; sexuality, human interaction, obsessions and corporeality. The body is the vehicle we temporarily claim as our own. Making use of its characteristics as a natural material is a way of research that stagnates my endless stream of thoughts. Therefore creating a moment where being is bewildering, using experience rather than thoughts.A performance might lead to a series of pictures that over time may become a sculpture.


Making art is like a battle, an endless fight with myself and my ideas, my needs and desires. Yet its process is the most rewarding and exhilarating thing I can think of.
Dennis Verbeke 2012

First Floor

For the first time DOGtime students have their
portraits on the wall of their exhibit space.

Anneke, Claudia, Pieter and myself hold up residence at room 108 on the first floor. Our works vary from 'maze' like living room installations to 3d collage settings, to interviews and documentary style films to sculptures, slideshows and blown up photography. It took some time to get familiar with the right way to approach visitors. Or how I could round up a conversation. Keeping a steady informative and entertainingly flow is something I had to get myself familiar with. Little by little I seem to catch up on the game...

Not To Stare Up At Me

After the results from the
final exam had been discussed
we all received a rose.

Time is a strange thing these days, it accumulates at one moment, giving me the impression of a timeless vacuum and the next moment it goes by so rapidly that hours seem to slip through my fingers! My body got rid of all tension and stress when the teachers told me that from now on I was an certified artist. A new Bachelor to add to the 2012 Graduation List! The energy of our class went through the roof of the glass building. Smiling faces all around, cheering, congratulating and phoning friends and families at home. 

Simone with her 3 year old daughter Rosie having
a great time at my picture

The next day was the Official Opening, with several speeches, VIP tours, newspapers and television crews all over the place. The sun outside was blazing. Making me aware that summer had begun. Everybody seemed to be in an exhilarating state of being. The aisles were packed, people with flowers everywhere, flashes of cameras and people posing. I never thought it would be such an insane event. I guess you reach that state automatically when you look in the eyes of the ones you love who have come to share the joy and to express their pride. 

My mother striking a pose with me