Biografia
Traces
2010-1012
Acrylic on canvas
various sizes
The paintings in the Traces series resonate the transience of cultural remains. Images of buildings and cities impose themselves in layers of old and new paint. The images are echoes of architectural or urban plans, schemes and topographies. They are traces of building projects, unclear wether they are existing, utopian, rejected or ruined.
The technique of the paintings in this series is typical for Dijk’s contemporary work. The paintings are composed of many layers built up with different techniques of addition, omission and reduction. They have undergone many processes which have all left their traces. An image emerges through processes of adding paint and brushing or scrubbing it off repeatedly and overpainting dried viscous layers of paint with transparent new layers, where the portrayed object as well as the surface both ask for closer inspection.
The attention for construction and deconstruction can be seen as the physical aspect of culture. Cultures and their heritage will always fall prey to decay and disappearance. Nonetheless we keep on realizing new expressions of dwelling. Future planning recalls its preceding history, its ruins and the decay of cultural wealth. Fragments of what has been merge together with elements of what might become new realities.
‘The new series of paintings ‘Traces’ by Peter Dijk recall urban structures and building plans. The titillating images and techniques of the paintings evoke questions about the Dutch building tradition. The series inspires as a plea for smaller scales and more poetry in urban planning and building design.’
Ir. Anna Dijk / London
