Tekenen met Rook

Tekenen met Rook (Drawing with Smoke, 2005) by Berend Strik takes as its subject the ephemeral medium of smoke — which has been used by artists from the Renaissance to contemporary performance art.

Drawing with smoke creates ghostly traces that fade quickly. Strik's textile interventions into images involving smoke add a counterpoint — the permanence of stitching against the ephemerality of smoke. This tension between permanence and impermanence is central to his practice.

The Dutch title grounds this work in Dutch art traditions — the Dutch still life painters were fascinated by smoke, steam, and other ephemeral effects (vanitas = everything fades). Smoke also appears in religious contexts — the smoke of incense and sacrifice — connecting the physical phenomenon to spiritual practices.

Sources: Galerie Fons Welters