Explanation of my work

Paul Evenhuis - 1993

When I look around me in this world, I can come to no other conclusion than that it consists of chaos. In my images, I try to bring a certain order into this. Images are formed in which the aspects of sensory perception of the external world and my reflection upon it are expressed. This is symbolised in the strict colour or black-and-white bands. However, through the diffuse transitions of those bands, they indicate that this order is actually an apparent order.

I notice that it is apparently inherent to human beings, when looking, to want to find a recognisable image in order to place it in their own experiential world. To escape this, I started painting more and more abstractly and my images currently consist only of abstract forms. These cannot be reduced to visible reality.

Through the diffuse contact edges of those colour bands, a kind of vibration or movement is created for the eye. This is primarily a visual experience. Because it is not immediately clear what causes that vibration, it invites, in the second instance, focused and thoughtful looking. The mental experience thus follows the visual experience. I also refuse the viewer the possibility of directly interpreting the image through a title.

The viewer can, as it were, initially only expérience the image, provided they open themselves up to it.