I just finished up a paper litho series for a portfolio I’m participating in together with other Dutch printmakers. Our starting point is printmaking but we also work on a theme; boundaries, limitations, barriers, borders. Or whatever you want to call that line you want to cross or you don’t want to cross. A line that can be visible or invisible. And this line; can you pass it freely or do you want it to be there? Did you draw it yourself or did someone else built it for you?

I printed a guy on his way to work, holding his suitcase. He knows the way; because every day he takes the same road. But today it is different; all of a sudden, like it came out of nowhere, there is a fence in the middle of the road. He doesn’t understand. Was it there before or did someone put it there while he was sleeping? It could be his own imagination; that he created this barrier himself. He doesn’t know and I don’t know. But I wouldn’t be surprised if someone else has put it there.
When I watch the news I’m starting to think that we are living in a world where other people started to build boundaries, literally. They want to exclude people. Instead of working towards a free world, they build a fence because they are so afraid that an unknown guy with a suitcase will destroy their world.