From ashes
I made this drawing for the competition organised by the Antwerp Onboards Biennale on the theme "In Touch". It was selected and displayed on billboards around the city. The drawing is about mental health and how we need to get in touch with ourselves before we can get in touch with others. I wrote an accompanying text which you can read below.
The drawing is digital and is 810 x 1135 mm.
Client: Personal work
Curator: Sonja Tomic and the Onboards Biennale Team
Year: 2023
The space has become smaller.
I cannot recognize the shape of it anymore.
Where am I? Who was I before all this?
When clouds used to be just a few and not so many.
I remember a time when everything was lighter.
There was no pandemic, no damned inflation, no gloomy future.
I belatedly cherish what has been stolen from us.
This comfortable place built of hope.
Can light disappear forever?
I dive, you dive, we dive.
We extract layers of dust, looking for what is left.
And we find treasures.
The taste of smiling, the smell of colours. It is all there.
These tiny things whose enjoyment was once within our reach.
How could I have taken all this for granted?
I rebuild, you rebuild, we rebuild.
With the sand under our feet, with the stones that buried us, on the ashes of our memories.
We have aged.
We are 37, 46, 58, 72 and more.
We are in touch. With one another,
But most importantly, with ourselves.
Thanks for watching !
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