Rob Visje his work is the result of years of dedication to an elusive thematic question: how do you capture the intangible in physical form? What construction or constrictions of form can come to represent an aesthetic that is not only true but vibrant, visually exciting and magical?
Forced to confront an uncomfortable reality, in his late teens, when the idealism of his family's socialism failed him, Rob found himself adrift in a world devoid of the almost cult-like certainty of an achievable socialist ideal he had lived with all his life.
Attracted to the anti-establishment, anti-authoritarianism of 70’s punk culture in Amsterdam, Rob was also drawn into an uncomfortable nihilism that suited his desperation but played havoc with his disposition. Caught in the vice of a profound question— if idealism, as experienced through his parent's socialism, was not an achievable goal; and the vibrant but also violent nihilism of punk did not distil as a new representation of idealism — what was there? Or where was there? Where was the capture that would constitute a representation of the questions disturbing him?
Finding solace and freedom in art during his time at the Rietveld, Rob sought, in his work, a physical form that could answer the question.
In tackling issues of space and time and embracing Baudrillard’s unique concepts of hyperreality, Rob moved towards the idea of the intangible tangible: the concept that there was a tangible truth to be discerned within the intangible.
Recognizing the limitations of the canvas as part of this intangible, Rob’s deep concerns were able to find a form that did not seek to answer the question directly, that, indeed, took away all idea(s) of direction and achievable goals , replacing them with the fundamental idea of there existing a bridge whose representation could only appear within a juxtaposition of various representations.
Rob let capitalistic and communistic Modernistic architecture, meet each other, in conflicting perspective, meet in one surface of his canvas. He got the feeling that the gravity is of no value anymore.
The canvas presented here invite us to step out of and into a space of self determined realizations through a magical interaction with a sense of the infinite.