2018
Video work
41:41 min

The Abstract Self-Portrait emphasises the experience of the (painting) process. Visual artist Daan Roukens portrays, in an abstract way, what takes place in his mind. In doing so, he constantly experiences a sense of restlessness, caused by the tension between order and chaos. When chaos becomes too dominant, he allows his obsessive perfectionism to take over; when structure becomes too controlling, he actively seeks out chaos again. Yet Roukens does not believe in a single ultimate value. For him, the sublime lies precisely in the moment in between. In The Abstract Self-Portrait, he translates the painting Say Yes When You Want To Say No #6 literally into video and sound. Each color represents a single tone; where there is no paint, there is no sound. In this way, the painting develops both audibly and visually with every added layer.

With this work, Roukens creates, through the process itself, new pathways into the in-between experience within the tension between compulsion and complete freedom. The video becomes a continuous sequence of contradictions and connections: between process and result, paint and sound, and between the artist and the viewer.