GERRIT MEIRMAN
the materiality of a work
and why paper is the ideal medium.
In analogy with a quote from Epicurus: Somewhere halfway between love and indifference we find friendship.. (nicely in the middle), we can also say: Halfway between pure matter and pure spirit, we find paper, it is still tangible, but it is above all a carrier of ideas. This reasoning no longer applies to canvas nailed to a frame and painted thickly and pasty. Too much matter drags the experience down, although many are attached to a tactile experience, but to me it seems a source of confusion. As long as we continue to hold on to materiality, or technicality, we no longer see the true goal, say a sublime experience.
bringing 5D into a 3D world
In the art world these ideas are already 100 years old, at least used consciously by Piet Mondriaan among others.
They saw the need for a pure image, stripped of any worldly connotation, even nature that surrounds us, which is by definition impure, or a subject that is given. They did want a universal visual language, beyond narrative or expression or the figurative. Mies van der Rohe once said, I don’t want self-expression I’m looking for a universal language that everyone can understand. What remains is an abstract image with lines and planes, but the ultimate meta language is spiritual.
One can spend a lifetime searching for the right entrance to one’s art practice, there are also forces at work that actually only sow confusion. But without an organizing principle, which distinguishes pure from impure, we don’t even realize that we are fooling ourselves.
We live in a world full of illusions and distractions, nothing is true, and even the distinction between higher and lower art is flawed because the distinction itself is not true either. Matter, the body but also feigned religiosity, it is the worship of the golden calf.
The problem with the 5d world is that there are no images, only consciousness, unlike 4d which provides an abundance of images.
For me Agnes Martin is someone who worked as a medium with this higher world. It is between the lines. You do not see it but it is there.
There are only a few things that we can be ‘aware’ of, there are multiple levels of consciousness involved at the same time, whoever wants to control the process is lost in advance. It is better to let go of all ego or ambition, trusting the process without having an image of where you want to end up. But 1 thing is clear, the work itself must be “simple. Multiple layers of meaning, or atmospheres, complicate the viewing experience. (You don’t want to eat the soup and dessert at the same time).
Large formats or monumental works are not for me, small intimate formats, (45/45cm), work better.
making visible what was previously hidden
An image can grow from within, partly you control the process yourself, and partly it happens automatically. Initiative and receptivity go hand in hand. yin and yang. The work process is of great concentration or focus, without it having to be tiring. A maximum penetration into the subject. But also a state of loving and dedicated ‘awareness’.Nothing is more fun than being amazed by what unfolds before your eyes.
concepts
concepts are being learned.
they are not natural
apart from the learning process, they do not exist.
they are not given
so they must have been created
not one is true, and many arise
from feverish imagination, heated from
envy, and from the distortion created by fear
arises.
what is a concept other than
a thought to which the creator
gives its own meaning.
concepts sustain the world
but cannot be used
to show that the world is real
for they are all made within the world
are born in its shadow, grow according to
its customs, and confirm themselves with
other concepts.
they are conceptions of idols.
painted with brushes of the world
which is unable to produce a painting
that represents the truth.
(adaptation of an excerpt from “a course in miracles)
bio
Born in Hoogstraten (Belgium) 11_03_63
One son born in 2005
Self-taught artist. From drawing painting (oil paint) to etching lithographs, to mixed media.
Studies: architecture, graphic industry. Worked in both domains, but also 5 years as a furniture and lighting designer in Milan.
Current: Live and work partly in Antwerp Belgium, and in Oristano Italy as a full-time artist.