World Fine Art Professionals and their Key-Pieces, 224 - Joran van Soest

 

World Fine Art Professionals and their Key-Pieces, 224 – Joran van Soest

I saw many zeppelins in Joran van Soest’s exhibition ‘the in between’ in the Twelve Twelve Gallery. For Joran, the zeppelin is not just a cigar-shaped airship with a cabin from below and some engines on the side, no, it means a lot more.

I speak to Joran at the exhibition. Gallery owner Silvia Bakker is also present. “I found the story of the zeppelin interesting,” he says. Joran’s image of the world could be different from the image of the world that others have. He wanted to study that further. On the basis of the zeppelin.

Zeppelin

Joran: “My grandfather worked as a radio telegrapher at the Air Force. He had several books about zeppelins. I was allowed to look into it. The first time I did that I was 8 years old and when I was 12 years old I looked at it again. I remember thinking ‘This is an important, but also heavy topic’.”

When he later had to choose a subject at the Art Academy, the zeppelin came up again. “In class we had to draw owls, it was in the third year. You then started with spheres and three-dimensional round spaces. Although it wasn’t really perfect at first, the teacher did see something in it and encouraged me to continue and look for other types of structures. That is how I ended up with the zeppelin as a graduation subject. For me, the zeppelins stood for the inaccessible above the horizon. The limit of my consciousness – and the understanding that I could observe this limit. I was intrigued by the fact that you can still perceive something that you no longer understand. The vehicle was so large that I looked at it in the same way as other people did. It was something megalomaniacal and I started criticizing it in my thesis. Now I have plans to place a real zeppelin artwork of metal on an estate. ”

Space

In Joran’s work it is about inter-subjective space. Joran: “That is the fragmented, complex space that is contained in our understanding of the world, including the world around us. The space between myself and the other, between myself and my image of myself. So self-reflection. It is a closed universe that is layered and fragmented. “

Joran uses his own person and another person to illustrate his image of space. “It can be the space in a painting, but also the space between the painting and the viewer with his or her own perspective.” Silvia Bakker: “And then you also have the role of the gallery, the conceptualization, the semiotics, the language, translation and communication. “

Joran agrees. It is striking that all his works at the exhibition are in black and white. Is color excluded? “Initially, color was not necessary at all. At the moment, color is allowed. First I had the framework, then color is not important, stronger: it means nothing. Symbols are attached to color, so stories. So using a color is a well-considered choice. “

Key work

Does he have a key work, a directional work? He has several, he says. “For me, a key work is a work that gives me new ideas, which makes me see new connections.” An example is the work ‘Within’. “It is a study of the reflective self. The place the viewer perceives through the fence is a metaphorical place and represents the outside world and the other person. Everything that is outside this place, outside the gates, is the ‘known unknown’. The work becomes a medium for observing the fragmentation that arises when I try to understand the world in relation to myself. “

Another key work is ‘Boys playing ping pong on a Frozen Golden Lake with mandarins’. At first I thought that the red balls were the mandarins, but that turned out to be the ping pong bats. The mandarins are there, but not orange. “A frozen lake stands for a state of being between solid and unsteady. Three figures play a game, they look at you and invite you to participate. The viewer is invited to think about how he further fills in the painting and himself. A golden lake as a mirror. “

And a third key work is Paradigm.2. We see two people with air bags. It represents the inter-subjective space. “When we communicate, each of us starts from his own reality. Our world is mine, my world is yours.” See the video: https://vimeo.com/210844397

In another film, ‘the relative moment’, which is subdivided into three films, it is about the same theme. Everyone has his / her own perspective. The last film is the memory of a travel story. “I was standing on a mountain while I was in love with another person. I was alone with that, because the other did not know. I would not want to confront that other person at the bottom of the mountain if I were down again, because then the unique moment would be over.” Https://vimeo.com/249020095

St. Joost

In high school he initially wanted to choose philosophy as a study, but it became the Art Academy. “I felt like an artist when I was 14 years old.” He graduated from the St. Joost Academy in Den Bosch. It took five years. “I would recommend it to anyone, to study an extra year. That extra year works to your advantage because you can better explain your work. You have had a personal struggle and it takes some time before you have a good perspective on that. Now, graduated, I am legitimized to be what I have always been. I have some 80 years to go. If my life yields a beautiful story, it has been worth it.”

He thought it was a great academy. “I had a fantastic time. But the academy must keep the space to allow the students to work freely. That is essential. The academy is getting stricter now and this can have a negative effect on students who aren’t immediately understood by the teachers. ”

Predict the future

What is his experience with the artistic life? “A lot is political. Art shouldn’t be meshed up with all kinds of other interests, but it nevertheless is part of it. As a young artist you have to be careful not to place your story in certain frames. It is important that you stay with yourself as an artist. You should not allow yourself to rise above your work. “

Finally, does he have a philosophical thought, if not already discussed? Joran: “Finding the space in a work of art is an exercise to predict the future.”

https://www.joranvansoest.com/
https://www.twelvetwelve.gallery/
https://ifthenisnow.eu/nl/verhalen/joran-van-soest-als-we-communiceren-gaan-ieder-van-ons-uit-van-zijn-eigen-realiteit