Berend Strik
Freestyle
Galerie Fons Welters - Back Space
24 Jan – 28 Feb 2004
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During the same weekend, not one but two solo-exhibitions with work by Berend Strik will open. Freestyle at Galerie Fons Welters, and Body Electric in the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden. The Fries Museum will present an overview of the essence of Strik's work, whereas Galerie Fons Welters will exclusively be showing new works. Also, a new publication about the work of Berend Strik will appear, entitled Body Electric.
In his solo at Fons Welters gallery, Berend Strik shows some eleven new large-size works, and one work consisting of several smaller works. Berend Strik meticulously builds up his images. The starting point is always a colourprint of an exisiting photograph. Next, he embroiders over the colourprint, or, as happens in the exhibition Freestyle, he applies small patches of silky Indian velvet. The photograph that is used as a basis for a work, can be a photograph from a personal or family-archive, and sometimes a photograph from a magazine - for example pornographic magazines. The issue for Berend Strik is to intervene in the regular story or idea of a photgraph. A photograph is often first cut out, and then adapted by computer. The most important intervention follows after this: the application of embroidery or fabric onto the colourprint. With the embroideries and patches of fabric, Berend Strik creates layers and realities that did not exist before, in the original photograph. The associations that a work can bring forth are multiplied.
In his earlier embroidery works, Berend Strik used very explicit photographs and adapted them carefully. He now seems to have changed his procedure. The starting point is now often a boring or at least calm photograph. The emphasis is placed on the deepening of the content of a work, by means of the application of embroideries and pieces of cloth. A silver-gray colourprint that is almost completely covered with dispersed tufts of deep blue velvet, is something that until now has not occurred in the work of Berend Strik.
Something that hasn't changed is the interest of the artist in the way a photograph acts. One looks at a picture and attaches certain ideas and feelings to it. The play with meanings within an image is continued in Freestyle. Berend Strik creates connections between images; he plays with historic atmospheres when he intervenes in a clearly historical photograph; he makes use of arthistorical cliches; and he uses autobiographical details to express something that he thinks is universal. The content of a number of works stands in sharp contrast to their velvety beauty.
The work of Berend Strik was once typefied as uncouth, because it is often on the edge of decency. Now however, a touch of engangement seems to have slipped into his work. Together with the powerful unity in the form of the works, this creates a kind of frozen beauty. The uncouth person has grown up.
[Merel van Tilburg]
The book Berend Strik, Body Electric is for sale (or can be ordered) at every bookstore and at Galerie Fons Welters and the Fries Museum. The book, with 128 pages, contains an essay by Sven Lutticken, and is published by Valiz, Amsterdam. The price is 25,- euros.