'my town' artist impression Schuttersgalerij Amsterdam museum

My Town: a celebration of diversity will comprise 176 panels, each of them approx. 100x100cm. Each panel stands for one of the many cultures accommodated in Amsterdam - a subject inspired by my fascination for the fact that so many cultures coexist in one country.

What lies behind "My Town" is a very personal artistic vision. I approach the cultures from a Western, romantic perspective, in which my accumulated knowledge offers support, and intuition is the motor that can turn knowledge into a powerful artistic statement. My interest is in people, in life, the world of the imagination, the intellect and the cultural context in which people exist and develop.

Each individual panel represents a powerful (textile) image from a particular culture. Completeness in the number of cultures represented in Amsterdam, is what gives the work its strength. It enables a system to form within the patchwork of images. Whereas from a distance the 176 panels form an abstract composition, closer by the viewer's eye will be drawn by specific elements in the overall picture.

The choice of images is not determined by my own emotions, but by the power and singularity of the images of the various cultures. Each image concerns a detail from an authentic piece of textile from the respective culture. The original composition and colour has been maintained. By combining these details from the daily lives of those 176 cultures in a relative systematic manner, a monumental work arises that in its entirety reveals a certain abstraction.

It is my personal statement as a born and bred Amsterdam based professional (textile) artist.