How do you describe your own art practice?
As a photographer I try to combine the curiosity of the journalist researching actual phenomena – symptoms of the global, capitalist crisis –, the empathy of the detective infiltrating enclosed worlds, and the sensibility to capture the way fiction transforms reality.
What was your first experience with art?
Looking at Twin Peaks when I was a child. I think I was around 10 years old, pretending I was sleeping on the couch, but sneakily looking at the absurd Lynch world, trying to find out who killed Laura Palmer.
What is your greatest source of inspiration?
The absurdity of (daily) reality – lots of inspiration lately 😉
What do you need in order to create your work?
Time and my camera.
What are you working on at the moment?
My exhibitions at The White House Gallery in February 2017, my first solo where I will show over 55 photographs, a combination of different series.
For instance, I will exhibit a big selection of the result of my PhD project ‘Epidermis II’. The series consists of uncanny portraits and close-up shots of members of the zentai community. Zentai is a term for skin-tight (often flesh-coloured ) suits worn to cover the whole body that allows people to transform into a new ‘simplified’ self. It gives rise to the feeling of being totally enclosed and separated from the rest of the world. Those subcultures are of Japanese origin, but I choose to photograph them in Belgium and our neighbouring countries where this alienation is less expected.
But also brand new work, e.g. a look at the airsoft community, a sport in which participants eliminate opponents by hitting each other with spherical non-metallic pellets launched via replica weapons.
What work or artist has most recently surprised you?
Gregory Halpern’s book “Zzyzx”, published by Mac.
