In a series such as Waiting, the thematic framing does not or at least should not imply the possibility of one interpretation only.
While each of the three paintings can be read individually and although each canvas carries
its own narrative, the thematic frame refers to recent history: the moments just before the so-called 2003 'Shock & Awe' campaign in Iraq, a further step in the War on Terror.

War as a pictorial theme continues in the two small scale paintings Marine and Ad.
Based on family photographs found on the internet, we take a glimpse at images rooted in private, family life.  In contrast, Waiting describes the public approach taken by the mass media to give viewers the impression that they have the possibility of witnessing a live war through the medium of television.  
Thus Waiting on the one hand and Marine and Ad on the other form a related thematic frame: depicting war through its absence.

With Mr. and Mrs. Smith with Bob looking at a Caravaggio and Kathy with her dad looking
at an Ingres, two more works are presented as part of a series in which museum goers look at what is generally known as 'high art'. Both paintings emphasize the interaction with and viewing of what most gallery visitors identify as  'masterpieces'.
Although the depicted viewers are visually distinguished from the copied painting, they share the same visual space.

The process of consumption and reproduction is always initiated through an original work of art. As a consequence, an original artwork turns into its own copy through the act of reproduction while originality becomes unnecessary or at least unidentifiable.
In this series, the viewer's fascination with the 'aura' of an original piece of high art and the artwork's status as an object of consumption and reproduction come into play. The other aspect of this series is a slightly comical one: the contemporary viewer who, in the role of an art tourist, intrudes on the historically defined space of a wonderfully detached counterpart appearing in shape of Caravaggio's Narcissus and Ingre's Madame Henri Gonse.

August 2007