Thin air, multimedia, 2024 (2024)

Digital images originating in paper and paper collages.

Moss gardens (Koke-dera)

These prints of digital work and of photos of paper collages are from an ongoing series called Koke-dera. 

Koke-dera is the Japanese word for moss temple, the Japanese use it to refer to the Saihō-ji temple in Kyoto.
 
In the garden near the temple, the ground is covered with moss with green shrubs and trees on top. The sky merges with the earth, everything is green. The world seems like one big fluffy pillow without boundaries. A world of softness in which every shocking sound, powerful movement or harsh light is absorbed and negated. 

The experience of the moss gardens has become important to me, I always try to recreate this experience in the soft digital and printed worlds that I create. 

These works are a constant attempt to capture that one experience in an image, a search for the same calm, comforting and gentle feeling of well-being. The resulting work is not one of grand gestures, but seeks beauty in the small, in modesty. An image that nods to the familiar and when you look at it more closely it gently transcends this familiarity.