Origin
A cycling vacation through the Netherlands in 1995 led to a series of photographs and collages: a kind of visual diary of the trip. I had graduated from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague in 1986.
At the time, I was no longer satisfied with my development as a painter and wanted change.
Those first collages further awakened the fascination I already had with photography.
The photographic images that emerged soon took on other characteristics than collages often have. Instead of compositions of shapes on a surface, they became works whose parts formed the image.
By sliding and fitting and, partially, placing the pieces of photographic paper on and over each other, I had to grip them in an increasingly complex way to prevent a work from falling apart. An intensive study led to the use of special, acid-free glues and adhesives, certain proportions of the pieces of paper and how best to combine them with each other.
Reason for work
My ideas arise from observations in my environment and from images and reports in the media: confrontations between personal life and world events are an important trigger for my work.
Work Process
I take photos on location and look for material in magazines and other publications.
Over the years I have created thematic photo folders for my working process.
With the collected material I make collages by hand. The photographs I take are mostly use material for me.
For that one moment or image to capture, I am not looking.
I set out to collect material and then use it to shape an idea about the world. Making one photographic image by hand, which consists of small pieces of photographic paper and therefore actually a lot of small images, is a tactile way of working that allows me to let an idea develop as freely as possible into a new image.
I use only photographic means and materials. From my previous history as a painter and my way of looking at things, I have come to regard pieces of photographs as paint strokes in a certain sense.
Photographs are visual descriptions that I must first strip of their meaning before I can create an image. So I must first destroy photographs. I do that by cutting and slicing.
The result is work that is both a deconstruction and a construction.
Victor Schalkwijk, 2024