Origin of the Beginning

Remember the green head guy from the cover of our issue #43? Of course you do. That's artist Levi van Veluw and he's at it again. If you happen to be in Amsterdam later this month (don't I wish) you can catch his newest installation in person. If not, check out the amazing pictures and video on this website.

Levi will showcase new work from a series of new installations, photographs and videos in which he draws from his own childhood memories to thematically and narratively develop his own brand of self-portraiture. The artist has created 3 “rooms” covered with more then 30.000 wooden blocks, balls and slats respectively. Each “room” is executed as a life-size installation (4m x 2.5m x 2.5m) and will be presented at the gallery together with photographs and videos.

I love this description of the project from his website: "On the one hand these works present themselves as a continuation of van Veluw’s formal approach to self-portraiture, with their preoccupation for materiality, pattern and texture. Yet they are simultaneously very personal pieces. The repetitive structures seemingly express a ‘horror vacui’ and recall van Veluw the youth and his obsessive attempts to gain control on his life by gaining control of his surroundings. Dimly light and dark in colour the overriding tone of these pieces are claustrophobic and sombre, exuding a sense of loneliness. The meticulous craftsmanship and high quality material with which every last knock and cranny is covered, result in a series of works that are also highly aesthetic."