Gerco De Ruijter: Hypnotic Landscapes Captured from a Comet
Experiencing the aerial photographs taken by this Dutch artist and not enjoying ourselves is practically impossible.
This artist found aesthetic precision, and a unique perspective, after attaching a camera to a comet. His photographs also stand out because they include compositions created by the contemplative repetition of the elements.
When one sees the work by Gerco Ruijter it is natural to hesitate, not because of its unquestionable beauty, but because of the objects that are portrayed. Are they carpets, microscopic substances or fields? His pieces, most of them moving, evoke natural landscapes that are also puzzling because of their unnatural dimensions. Are these aerial or microscopic pictures or, are they paintings? Ruijter presents us with an extension of technical possibilities, a beautiful practice, and a truly aesthetical gift, simple and authentic.
Born in the Netherlands, Ruijter has used analogue photography because of its artisanal quality; most of his images are a type of minimalist mediation expressed through simple compositions, many of which are pastel hues. In his most recent series, entitled Almost Nature, he captured Boskoop, one of the most fascinating plant nurseries in the world, which grows some of the rarest plants on Earth, and is located in Holland.
Almost Nature is an ode to natural textures which, as the artist explains in the description that accompanies his work, resemble organic pixels. Our imagination can run swiftly if we ignore the subjects depicted in his photographs, and even if we do have previous knowledge of the portrayed objects, it is impossible to find one interpretation for his rich textures, which endow his images with a distinctive signature.
The images invite us to touch them, but they also invite us to lie down on them, their aesthetic appreciation projects a world full of sensorial possibilities and they invite us to reflect on the exquisite quality of the visual art piece, which implies that the piece must show its own personality. Ruijter’s work is a type of hypnosis which intertwines secrets, or possibilities, surrounding the author, his spirit and feelings, and life itself.
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