The Netherlands, 1994
rjhermsen.wordpress.com
Handhaven
Side Effects
'Only time and your future behaviour,’ she answered the messenger, ‘will be the judge for your intentions.' His intentions rolled across the table. ‘Back into your holes!’ growled the Upholder while he gave a righteous shot.
- R. J. Hermsen. Testimony 1/ the Source of Law. From: Side Effects (2018).
Like a game of pool, our surroundings are an endless impact of cause and effects. In the installation Handhaven the paintings and the pool table seem to share a process of digesting of ideas, figures, forms and colours. These figures and situations are reminders of the past and how passing it can be. They work somewhat like an ambiguous mutating memory, with its vague areas, sharp judgements and changing truths. This is explored further in the Side Effects, a collection of short epic writings on laws and randomness. The words and motives that are found in both the paintings and the stories suggest links between the elements of the installation and that they are combined into whole system of function.
