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Surface to Surface

Troels Wörsel

Solo exhibition

12 March – 10 April 1993
Vleeshal (Map)

Curator: Troels Wörsel

Troels Wörsel , 'Surface to Surface', 1993. Exhibition overview. Photo: Wim Riemens | Surface to Surface | Troels Wörsel

Although the paintings in this exhibition show great variation, they all deal with the same problem. In fact, this is precisely why they are all different. With the title 'Surface to Surface', one of the terms of the "Lead Projection Technology", which we have become more and more familiar with recently, I want to outline an intuitive concept of a fundamental painting that also forms the background for these paintings.

It is often said, and perhaps it is true that "everything has already been done". What is meant by this, however, is that the formal possibilities of painting have become exhausted. This may be the case, perhaps the range of possibilities may be limited. (In that case it is tempting to add: a priori.)

But are these the kind of concepts that can be understood by change in painting?

I think change, real change, happens somewhere else. I would say that it is a development of the relationship between the image and the image plane. Where this relationship changes, a new space is created.

And the possibilities to change this relationship seem unlimited. At least they are not foreseeable. This is where the phrase 'Surface to Surface' hit me as the shortest way to express the core of the problem. Image and image plane form two surfaces. The image adheres to the image plane depending on how it was painted and organized. It moves to the coordinates as it were, and defines and creates a new - painterly space. This, as one can say, determines the location of the two areas in their mutual spatial relationship, in which the "image" has hit its goal.

This process makes every painted 'image' something new. Whether it was worth the effort of setting the process into motion is another question.

A note to prevent repetition: All paintings in this catalog are acrylic on canvas, size 120 × 100 cm.