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BodyTalk Domeinen Sittard The exhibition opened on Saturday afternoon, September 16, 2023, and will close on Sunday, January 14, 2024.

 

Bodytalk was an invitation to engage with the expressive power of the body. The painting I created shows female goddesses gathered around the moon. These feminine deities are indicated by their breasts and other female physical characteristics. They surround the moon because it symbolizes emotion and intuition. They have large hands, representing their great agency and influence on the world. In the foreground of the painting walks a man with one of those large hands. He appears to have received this hand from the goddesses. The man is an artist. An artist must channel the emotion and intuition bestowed by the goddesses, making it his task to interpret the world through these qualities.

 

A world increasingly dominated by rationality cannot properly hold subjective values. Concepts like "love" or "security" or "feeling at home" cannot be quantified nor absolutely defined or proven. This is where art's duty lies. It is an immensely difficult task because it must work with subjective arguments. The body is the vessel of subjectivity. Our body is our most direct, vulnerable connection to the world. We exist physically, with mortality as our primary consequence. Yet because we are vulnerable and mortal, we also face problems and interests we must resolve and develop. We address these through rational action.

 

Thus the human tool - "reason" - becomes disconnected from and opposed to the objective: "subjectivity." Humans want to realize their own feelings and desires, but apply so much intellect that they forget the original purpose amidst all logical, pragmatic thinking - namely, human emotional values.

 

 

 

"Bodytalk: The Paradox of the Feeling Body in a Thinking World"

 

This painting is a rebellion against the madness of our times - a whisper that grows louder as the world shouts more.

 

The goddesses surrounding the moon are not archetypes, but "accusations." Their exaggerated hands - symbols of agency - reveal precisely what's missing in our era: the courage to "act" on what cannot be measured. That they give one of these hands to the man in the foreground isn't a gift, but a "rebellion": the artist as last smuggler of the inexplicable.

 

**The great paradox:**

We live in an age desperately trying to capture everything in data, while what truly drives us - love, security, desire - escapes all measurement. The goddesses have known for centuries: rational action is a "means," never the "end." Yet we've grown so addicted to the tool that we forget why we used it in the first place.

 

The artist with that one large hand faces an impossible task:

- He must speak in a language that doesn't exist (for how do you describe a feeling without betraying it?)

- He must persuade with arguments that can't be proven (what is the evidence of melancholy?)

- He must make tangible what is by nature fleeting (how do you capture a memory in paint?)

 

And yet - herein lies the terrible beauty of his mission. Just as our body both connects us to the world and reminds us of our mortality, so art reminds us of what we "lose" by trying to "win" everything.

 

That large hand isn't a blessing, but a "warning":

"You may have intellect, but don't forget to feel. For what is a world that can explain everything, but means nothing?"

 

The body never lies. It knows all reason ultimately serves to protect our vulnerability - but what remains when we only protect, and forget "why"?

 

This painting isn't an argument against reason. It's a "distress call" from the frontline of the inexpressible - where art remains the last bridge between what we "can" measure and what we "must" feel.