ELLERT HAITJEMA
Toothbrushbeam, special edition: artists' book Haphazard + photograph Toothbrushbeam in an edition of 12.
Artists' book Haphazard, handbound, 120 pages, 30 x 22.4 cm., edition 12, signed and numbered, 2010.
Photograph Toothbrushbeam, lambda print mounted on aluminium + 6 mm hang profile, 30 x 42 cm., edition 12, signed and numbered, 2010.
Each artists' book and photograph individually signed and numbered, 2010.
€ 380,-
photograph Toothbrushbeam
cover artists' book Haphazard
Haphazard (inside pages)
Haphazard (inside pages)
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In his work Ellert Haitjema investigates
a vigorous language of forms whose origins lie not in aesthetics, but in the
urge to survive, from which it derives its beauty. Haitjema is fascinated by the
inventiveness with which people get by when little is available. For years he
has been recording, with his camera, their temporary shelters, makeshift repairs
and mysterious objects adapted to specific needs: pure poetry through the
surprising combination of objects and materials. Many examples of that can be
found in his book Haphazard.
Elaborating on visual elements suggested
by the photographs themselves, Haitjema subjects them to a number of treatments.
By folding the photographs, placing them in water or covering them with small
plates of glass, he turns them into three-dimensional objects which he then
photographs once again. The result is a two-dimensional image which resists
careless observation due to its inconsistencies.
His sculptures frequently have a certain
fragile and vulnerable quality, but beneath that lies, just as with his sources
of inspiration, an unexpected toughness. 'Keen observation' and 'reckless
thinking': these are key concepts in Haitjema's art.