Converge

2002

Jan Knigge Boek en Galerie, Hengelo, The Netherlands

Opening speech :

Dr.Ir. P. G.van de Veen

The universe is expanding and the stars and galaxies are moving farther apart.

How do you stop the universe from expanding? Even the continents are drifting slowly apart. The gap between America and Europe is widening both in geographical and political terms.

In the Netherlands, we’ve recently witnessed movements in which people and their convictions diverge. This kind of polarization does not bode well for society.

Political points aside, what matters is that divergence is everywhere. Nevertheless, to mount an exhibition with the title "Converge", can’t be a coincidence, this must have been a conscious choice.

When a child asks the meaning of the word "converge", the image of rails comes to mind easily.

Right in front of my feet the rails are positioned with a distance between them, further away they converge to one point. Looking back at the track traveled, you’ll see the rails meeting again in one point.

The title of this exhibition points to the meeting of these two Dutch artists, nearly 20 years ago, and at the same time, to their meeting here today with their works mounted side by side.

Between these two meeting points, just like between the rails, lies distance and at the same time a strong connection.

The example of the rails shows another aspect of convergence. The tracks in front of my feet certainly show their separateness, but in looking differently, one sees the same tracks coming together in one point. The distance and the meeting, that’s convergence ! Discovering convergence is only possible with a willingness to see in more than one way.

It’s isn’t hard to see the differences and distance between these artists and their work.

Expressive use of colour on the one side, and work with not much more than shadows of colour on the other. Work created digitally, which can be stored, reproduced against work that has been applied in a fragile way with ink and brush. These works side by side, mirrored in the glass of each other’s frames.

I hope that all of you are willing to take the challenge to look in different ways at this exhibition and to discover if and how these works meet and converge.