Portrait of Nita Curled Up_Triptych (Part of series Book of Light)

Book of Light comprises a series of (self-)portraits based on a handful of images that are only slightly different. However, they each have a different frequency and express a different piece of the greater narrative. Each portrait has gone through a series of individual manipulations. The portraits came to express different emotions, different moments, a search within the self and the now.

The idea for Book of Light started with researching the philosophical connection between time and art. The interesting line between our unconscious thinking, forgetting clock time and the creating from that unknown place within yourself. This way of sensing time and place in an art piece works like a bridge between the artwork and the spectator. 

For me the undefinable time has always been closely connected to the movement of light and this ever-changing light creating a new space and atmosphere continuously. With Book of Light, I wanted to research my deeper connection between the awareness of the fragility of life (since my wife was diagnosed with cancer and life and death were part of our daily life) and the ever-changing light abstracting her body in space. Using her curled up naked body in the early morning light to decipher our feelings of being frozen, feelings of fear, loss, loneliness and love.

This Triptych was made after my Love Nita had passed away, trying to connect with the deep feelings of grief and the missing her physical presence around me. Placing cut outs of the body in an undefined space, nearly drifting around.