Electric dust

Electric dust (2004) by Berend Strik combines two incompatible substances: electricity — the flow of energy that powers modern life — and dust — the accumulation of matter that represents decay and the passage of time.

Electric dust might refer to the particles that carry electrical charge, or to the residue left by electrical discharges. In either case, it suggests the intersection of the modern (electricity, technology, energy) and the ancient (dust, decay, entropy).

Strik's photographs capture moments — fragments of the electrical age, the age of images and instantaneous communication — while his textile interventions add something that belongs to an older, slower world of craft and handwork.

This tension between the modern (photography, electricity, speed) and the traditional (stitching, textile, slowness) is one of the productive contradictions at the heart of Strik's practice.

Sources: Galerie Fons Welters