Tijs Dragtsma (1992) - One Eye Breaks Her Oath

She is known for the fold of cloth across her eyes, the one detail that makes her Justice and not simply a woman with a sword. Here that cloth has slipped, just enough. One eye stays covered. The other is open, turned away from the viewer, fixed on something at the edge of the scale she is meant to hold level without ever looking at either side. No paint, no print, no ink made this. The figure, the sword at her side and the scale above it exist because the acrylic glass has been taken away from itself, a field of individual marks shaped directly into the surface rather than placed onto it. The image is present at any hour, in any light, and does not depend on either to be seen. The light gathers where it matters most. Her head, the bare shoulder, the raised arm and the scale itself hold the density of marks, built up until the surface reads as carved stone caught mid gesture. The sword drops into the dark at her side, more suggestion than object, and the lower folds of her robe dissolve into the same black the whole figure stands against, so that what remains lit is exactly what she is choosing to use, an eye, an arm, a set of scales, and nothing else. Look at what sits in each pan. One holds coin, drawn thin, almost transparent against the dark. The other holds a bag, closed, solid, catching far more of the light than anything on the other side. The arm does not waver. The eye does. It has already decided which pan deserves watching. One Eye Breaks Her Oath belongs to In Plain Sight, a series within Art with Scratch by Tijs Dragtsma in which imagery is constructed through controlled surface damage rather than pigment or print, and in which that same damage becomes a way of showing what everyone already half suspects about the scales we trust to stay level, that the hand holding them rarely needs to look to know which side it favors. Light does not create this image, it sharpens it. Under direct light the scratches across her face and the chain of the scale catch and hold, the contrast deepens, and the piece reads differently depending on where you stand, without the open eye ever looking away from the bag. "Blind was never the promise. Blind was only the costume." About Art with Scratch Art with Scratch is a body of work in which the image is not drawn, but released. Carved line by line into a deep black surface, each work emerges through countless precise scratches that catch the light and bring form out of darkness. From a distance, the image appears almost photographic. Powerful, recognisable and full of presence. Yet up close, the work dissolves into a dense field of individual marks. Fine, fragile and almost weightless. What seemed solid reveals itself as a delicate web of lines, each one a deliberate gesture, each one essential to the whole. Light does not create the image. It sharpens it. The black surface absorbs, while the scratched lines reflect. As light shifts across the surface, the image breathes. From one angle the figure stands clear and defined. From another it softens and settles back toward the darkness from which it came, without ever disappearing. Under a focused spotlight, the contrast deepens and the image takes on a sculptural, almost luminous quality. What makes this medium so compelling is its quiet tension. The act of scratching is direct and irreversible. Every line is a decision that cannot be undone. Yet the result is not harsh. It is intimate, atmospheric and alive with movement. Hardness becomes softness. Destruction becomes creation. Absence becomes presence. In works such as this portrait, the figure is never fully fixed. Through the interplay of line, light and shadow, the image shifts with perspective and atmosphere. At certain moments, the subject seems to step forward out of the black. At others, it settles back into stillness. It is within that movement, between sharpness and calm, that the work comes alive. Like all materials touched by time, the surface carries its own quiet life. Each scratch holds a moment, a breath, a gesture. Together they form not just an image, but a presence, one that continues to reveal itself with every change of light. About the Artist My name is Tijs Dragtsma, founder of TD Fine Art Studio. As an artist, I am driven by a constant desire to explore new visual languages. I do not see art as a fixed style, but as an evolving field of discovery where material, structure, light and emotion come together. My work often begins with a simple question. How can a material speak in a new way. How can hardness become intimacy. How can precision create emotion. That search lies at the heart of everything I create. Within TD Fine Art Studio, each body of work is approached as its own world, with its own logic, atmosphere and visual identity. Some works are built through rhythm, repetition and structure. Others emerge through absence, shadow, reflection or tension. What connects them is a shared commitment to originality, clarity and emotional presence. I am fascinated by contrast. Between strength and fragility. Between control and feeling. Between what is visible and what is left open to interpretation. My goal is not simply to make an image, but to create a work that holds attention, invites reflection and continues to reveal itself over time. TD Fine Art Studio is the space in which these explorations come together. It is not only a studio, but an evolving artistic universe shaped by curiosity, precision and the ambition to create work that feels distinctive, intentional and alive.

Schätzpreis:€3,500

Alle Objekte ansehen vonCatawikioderZeitgenössische Kunst