Job Koelewijn

‘Actually I’ve never done anything other than seek the right form for my ideas.’ Ever since his debut in 1992, Job Koelewijn (Spakenburg, 1962) has been putting this statement by Man Ray into practice. Despite the diversity of his photographic works, sculptures and installations in terms of form and the use of material, they bear his own highly recognizable signature due to their distinct atmosphere and logic. Koelewijn’s frequently unconventional methods wake the senses. In his photographic works, it is the mixture of poetry and incongruity that intensifies the observation. A Balancing Act (1998) shows the artist on a sidewalk in midtown Manhattan; skyscrapers loom in the distance. With the utmost concentration, he manages to balance an unsteady tower of stacked glasses and trays. In Untitled (1995) he lies on the floor with a shaft of uncooked spaghetti in his mouth, and in Bonnet (1992) a man frees himself of excessive visual stimuli by placing a mirrored cube over his head. Koelewijn’s photo works become etched in our memory with the poignancy of aphorisms. The Clockshop, from 2003, is a reconstruction of a store filled with clocks, each of which has stopped at a different time. Only the store itself seems to be running; like a pendulum, it sways back and forth.