midnight constellations

In Verbania, in Noord-Italië exposeerden, voorjaar 2009, de Nederlandse kunstenares Paula Kouwenhoven, samen met de kunstenaars Dodog Soeseno (Indonesië) en Masahide Kudo (Japan). Wat hen verbindt? Niet alleen de inspiratie van de nachthemel. Ook dat zij bevriend zijn en elkander treffen tijdens symposia van World Art Delft.

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Midnight Constellations in Art

Midnight constallations offer us, earthlings, an unlimited set of signs. The sailor in the midst of the ocean feels grateful when he sees the Big Dipper, the constellation which leads him to the Polar Star and thus to the North. Orion and the Southern Cross are helpful constellations to those who try to find their way in the Southern Hemisphere. Astrologists recognize familiar constellations, Taurus, Gemini, Virgo amongst others – these astral signs inspire reflections about destinies and psychological particularities. Many people make a wish when seeing a so-called falling star, which in reality is a meteorite. The scientist will draw conclusions from astronomic observations. We may assume without too much doubt that nobody can look at a midnight constellation without being profoundly impressed.

The French philosopher Blaise Pascal said that a human being feel frightend when confronted with the eternal silence of infinite spaces. But he stressed that it proved wisdom and good religious feelings to surrender to this reality. Midnight constellations bring us awareness of the cosmos, in which we have our very modest place. Something of this concept is present in the exposition that brings together works of Paula Kouwenhoven, Masahide Kudo and Dodog Soeseno. Their art tells us that midnight constellations can be considered to be messages of beauty and harmony.

It is interesting that at the same time that they conceived the idea of an exhibition of their recent works of art under the collective title Midnight Constellations, an exhibiton in the Vincent van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam showed paintings of Vincent and contemporaries uner the title Van Gogh and the colours of the Night. Especially the paintings by Van Gogh from his Arles and St.Rémy-de-Povence periodshow unforgettable midnight constellations. He painted them during starry nights. These nightly constellations, painted in a half realistic/half expressionistic way, seem to send cosmic messages to the little earthlings below and even to the landscapes. More than a century later Dodog Soeseno, Masahide Kudo and Paula Kouwenhoven give, fundamentally, a similar meaning to their art, be it, of course, in a very different way.

The paintings, notwithstanding their different approaches, have an awareness in common. It is this awareness: that as human beings we have a place in universe, from where the midnight constellations are shown to us in their overwhelming beauty.

Beauty is essential in the paintings of Paula Kouwenhoven and, most of all, it is colour that makes this visible. Colour is brought to us by light, the light that provides us with the messages of the stars, as signs from far away worlds and from long ago. Thus we reflect on the origin of the world. Courbet’s famous painting The origin of the world (L’origine du monde) suggests that this origin is metaphorically represented in the world of mankind by the female vulva, as a door to the vagina. We find symbolic vulva’s on Paula’s paintings, but eventually we may take them for mouths, the organ by which one can speak out. People familiar with earlier work by Paula may notice that the forms and colors in her recent work are more outspoken than previously. There is change, evolution.

The same thing is evident in the artistic development of Dodog Soeseno’s work. His artistic development brings him from the romantic-erotic dream performances of some seven years ago to his Diary of Expectations. These expectations are in relation tot his dealing with Japan, its culture and its artists. Dodog has exhibited in Japan, from Tokyo, Shikoku, Nagasaki, to Okinawa. His works show that the French philosopher Jacques Lacan was right in suggesting that each of us lives in three different worlds, that of reality, that of the imaginary and that of the symbolic. In his former period his representations and symbols were closer to reality as they are in his to-day paintings. But the implicit dream subsists in Dodog’s abstract forms: they suggest mysterious movement and evolution, just as the heavenly constellations do. The colours add the beauty of the dream.

Meditation is a permanent existential tradition in the life of Masahide Kudo and this has its effects on his art. In a spontaneous way he has given evidence of his love and respect for what nature means for mankind. When he gives expression to his inner observations of universe, we find explosive images. The implicit passion in these images brings us to an other awareness: movement and violent changes are part of cosmic evolutions and revolutions. What was real and radiant one day explodes and disappears later in a black hole. That explains the black in Kudo’spaintings, whereas his colours speak of the splendour of life. Do black and colour fight or do they dance a cosmic dance? That is the fascinating question we ask when looking at Kudo’s art work.

These three artists show recent works, latest elements in their artistic evolution. They have in common fundamental creative ideals and ideological presuppositions. Paula, Kudo and Dodog are fellow-artists, friends. The last time they met together, with many other artists, was in 2008 in Delft, Holland, the city of Vermeer. It was for a Symposium which prepared an exhibition named Recycle Art. Both, the preparing symposium and the exhibition itself, took place on the ground of World Art Delft, the settlement of a foundation created by Paula Kouwenhoven. This lovable, softspoken person is not only a creator of fine art, who has worked and exhibited the world over, but she is also a very energetic and inspiring art manager. She realized in collaboration with her running mate Dodog Soeseno substantial educational and creative art projects. The two curators organize a Symposium Art under the Volcano at the end of the year 2009. The volcano is the Merapi, in central Java, Indonesia, near the town of Yogyakarta. For information: www.worldartdelft.nl.

De afbeelding toont Masahide Kudo, in de tuin van Wold Art Delft tijdens het symposium over Recycling Art.