I was invited to be a guest curator to programme the exhibitions in 2009 in the bewaerschole in Burgh-Haamstede.

'a human being' .............................as a vulnerable mortal individual. The only earthly being aware of its own finitude. This human consciousness causes much suffering, but enables him also to astonish himself, to desire, to forget and to change. He can relate to and observe things from a distance and with humour, in this he differs substantial from other animals. These psychological and social complexities and also the experience of powers which are stronger than ourselves, have determined the selection of the artists. The programme not only tells a lot about the invited artists, but also has become a kind of self-portrait of myself and the last exhibition, which is of my own work, is almost a group exhibition with myself.
The title of my exhibition is 'being' . It is about recording my existence. My work is often very associative and narrowly interwoven with my daily life. The work announces itself to me in the garden, cutting the vegetables for the soup, during walking or simply musing in bed. But surrendering to being is not a passive attitude, but asks for a clear choice to conserve individuality and the wealth of the imperfect. The work `vanitas' (graphic 1999) is a monoprint of a human figure. The veins are like rivers, a delta landscape, projected from above on a pattern of tumbling girls. Vanitas, not only related to death, but above all the celebration of life. Not in the sense of planning, but awareness of the functioning of the body. With a focus on those processes in the body, which happen automatically. Apart from knowledge, wishes or possibilities, just being a part of nature. Because in being a part of the larger whole; in losing oneself, you experience the sense of it and perhaps also the sense within it. The most recent works are the ceramic floor sculptures, organic anthropomorphic forms, which simultaneously refer to our microscopic interior. Thus we have the two poles of life, birth and death. These are facts. In between you must live life itself. `Being' is about making choices and undertaking actions.

teja, october 2009