Statement
In a world where violence and the underlying risks have become routine issues, we look at the fragility of life with all its opportunities and possibilities, giving priority to feelings and emotions. Both of us have a fairly large cultural background and broad experience of different cultures and different countries; we belong to a new variety that should really be termed “world citizens”. The wish to enhance the value of the everyday, literature, poetry and music are inspirational topics in our work.
We were looking for poetry in life, being able to cheer for those little moments that life consists of, yet are mostly ignored. We do not feel stuck in the labyrinth everyday; we started caring about our attitudes towards ourselves or in relation to our environment. At the beginning we worked with collage that consists of humorous depictions of our behavior, our emotions and our state of mind, a rediscovery, our tool was simply a positive mental attitude. Does this sound simplistic?
That doesn’t mean it was easy. To acquire the proper mindset takes time but, once we had done so, it was like coming out of a dark tunnel into bright light. To fill this attitude with warm and bright colors. To play with language and its power, we like, to provide a push to the viewer so they can make their own universe, we also like. In this long process of our work, our attitude towards ourselves has become much more free, open and tolerant. Our study has became our playground.
One fine summer day, a significant event occurred in our studio: a large green Grasshopper suddenly appeared there. This Grasshopper gave us a new source of inspiration and we tried to find out more information about him. We learned something very special, namely the various possibilities he has available for immediate action: he can jump, fly, walk and make sounds. He uses all of these qualities to move on in life. The grasshopper image became a metaphor, a symbol of attitude, an attitude to succeed in the everyday conflicts of life, significant or trivial.
This graphic element is the common theme in our work; he is there to remind us about our attitude to our own reflection. We adopt the attitude of the Grasshopper when ever we feel trapped and unable to change focus, enabling us to use our diverse mental attitudes.
He has become the symbol that identifies us.