The Eriskay Connection

Is nature a place, an all-encompassing system, or an ideal that we carry within us? The work of Bas Ketelaars (NL) emerges from an interest in the problem of representing nature. A nature that is unreachably far away and yet all around us. Where does culture end and nature begin, or is there really a difference?

With the romantic tradition in mind, Ketelaars explores the landscape in a personal and experiential way. Hereby he is interested in both the means of photography and drawing in order to create images where different systems are not so much opposing each other but rather produce the image together. Proximity and distance, space, transparency, densification, or transformation, among other things, can be the starting point of his work.

Residencies are an important part of his practice, often as a starting point for creating new work. One of his recent visits was to Białowieża National Park in Poland, famous among biologists around the world for being located in the heart of the largest primeval forest of Europe, a forest never cut down by humans. He takes photographs, often in sequences, moving small details in each image or using filters that he places between the camera and the subject. Always in search of a new representation of nature.

Ketelaars is interested in the means of both photography and drawing, the interaction of technique and craft, to create images where different systems are not so much opposing each other but rather produce the image together. Proximity and distance, space, transparency, densification, or transformation, among other things, can be the starting point of his work. In his photographs, he explores the space between the lens and the vista. By using that space, not only the space but also the artist becomes visible. The speed and efficiency of the photograph contrasts with the manual slowness of the drawing. Seclusion in nature becomes seclusion in the studio. For him, the photograph is not transparent but an object with its own materiality. What interests him is how this object is subject to change, whether accidentally or deliberately in the darkroom or simply through being exposed to life. He also uses projection in relation to his photographic images. When he traces a projection, he stands close to the light and thus loses the overview – he only sees light and dark spots, while the picturesque disappears. If you move away, an image can emerge, but if you get closer, it falls apart again. From a panorama to a hermetic nature full of microscopic life.

Edges of Landscape is a work in itself in which Ketelaars combines his photographic material with drawings in an experimental manner for the first time. One of the accompanying essays is by Tim Inghold, Professor of Social Anthropology, who explores the relationship between anthropology, archaeology, art, and architecture as a way to discover the connection between humans and their environment. A second essay is by Helen Westgeest, Associate Professor of Modern Art History and Theory of Photography who writes about the concept of a surface in relation to Ketelaars’ photographs, drawings and the landscape.