The Past Inside Present

Art is artificial; it is a fake version of reality. The imagery of art represents, illustrates suggests and provides stillness— it sharpens our perspectives and deepens the experience of reality. Esther Tielemans’s work aligns opposites, like the two- and three-dimensional, the abstract and figurative, reality and artificiality. It forms an environment in which the experience of the new precedes the habitual of the familiar. The authors of this book, Maria Barnas and Hans den Hartog Jager, describe their findings in a personal, poetic and investigative manner; while being supported by art history references and other cultural phenomena. Their in-depth approach illustrates how this body of work lets our perpetual sense of reality slip as it invades our senses. Yet this extraordinary environment, that grounds the past in the present, is simultaneously undetermined as it feels close to our sense of particularity. Where we are is suddenly different from where we once were.