ELLERT HAITJEMA

Toothbrushbeam, special edition: artists' book Haphazard + photograph Toothbrushbeam in an edition of 12.

Artists' book Haphazard, handbound, 120 pages, 30 x 22.4 cm., edition 12, signed and numbered, 2010.

Photograph Toothbrushbeam, lambda print mounted on aluminium + 6 mm hang profile, 30 x 42 cm., edition 12, signed and numbered, 2010.

Each artists' book and photograph individually signed and numbered, 2010.

€ 380,-

photograph Toothbrushbeam

cover artists' book Haphazard

Haphazard (inside pages)

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In his work Ellert Haitjema investigates a vigorous language of forms whose origins lie not in aesthetics, but in the urge to survive, from which it derives its beauty. Haitjema is fascinated by the inventiveness with which people get by when little is available. For years he has been recording, with his camera, their temporary shelters, makeshift repairs and mysterious objects adapted to specific needs: pure poetry through the surprising combination of objects and materials. Many examples of that can be found in his book Haphazard.

Elaborating on visual elements suggested by the photographs themselves, Haitjema subjects them to a number of treatments. By folding the photographs, placing them in water or covering them with small plates of glass, he turns them into three-dimensional objects which he then photographs once again. The result is a two-dimensional image which resists careless observation due to its inconsistencies.

His sculptures frequently have a certain fragile and vulnerable quality, but beneath that lies, just as with his sources of inspiration, an unexpected toughness. 'Keen observation' and 'reckless thinking': these are key concepts in Haitjema's art.