In August last year I was enthralled by the Rotterdam artist Janneke van der Putten and her exhibition All begins with A, in Tent gallery. Her artwork ‘All Begins With A: inspired by the SUNRISE’ made a very strong impression and it had an unexpected emotional impact. I was filled with intense longing for a place, for a time, for an activity. It was a powerful, melancholy experience. I still cannot put it into words (…) I visited the exhibition several times and made photographs, recordings and notes. Below are my personal notes. Below is my struggle to capture a feeling that refuses to be captured. Even a year later I cannot put it into words. (…)
I see a vague shape in the dark. Slowly I realize that this is the prow of a canoe that makes its way across the water. I see hills and woods at sunrise. I’m floored by the beauty of calm exploration. Of getting to know a place. (…)
I come back. The fascination of those tiny spots of light in the background. Not knowing – yet – what they hide, what they promise. Slowly discovering their relation with the topography. Mountains, hills, how I miss them here in the flatlands. (…) The beauty of the conifers on the hillsides, the jagged line of the dark horizon against the morning colours. Rising early, circumnavigating an island, getting to know an unknown place intimately. Experiencing the light, the sound, the temperature. How I would like to do that! But it’s useless to copy this artwork, I will have to find my own, personal version.