The Light Wins
7 paintings, each 80×200 cm, 2024
Coalpaint and coal on canvas
Untill september 30 – Biënnale Cultuurvuur – Botanical Garden of Meise (B)
Location 51 / AV – Friendship temple
This is the accompanying text on site:
“Come in, stand in the center of the circle, and look around. You have now stepped not only into the world of the artist, but also into that of Freemasonry.
The temple you are now standing in was founded in 1818 for the elevation of master in Freemasonry of Baron Emmanuel Vanderlinden d’Hoogvorst. That intrigued An Vanderlinden. She researched symbols in Freemasonry, and used them as building blocks in this installation. So it is by no means a coincidence that they have just become 7 paintings.
Symbols form a universal language, allowing people with different backgrounds and characters to communicate about the same topics. There is no absolute explanation for this, everyone can interpret the meaning in their own way.
In Freemasonry, the rough stone is a symbol for man, the soul. It is edited and processed in different ways in this series of paintings. The square that you find in each painting represents the cubic stone that the Freemason strives for. “The purpose is to shape the rough stone into a cubic stone, so that it can serve in the symbolic construction of the Temple.” In other words: the goal is to become the best version of yourself, so that you can contribute to a better world.
If you stand in the middle of the temple and turn around your axis, you can compare the stones in the squares. Do you see that the stones in the outermost paintings (closest to the door) are rougher, and lighter in color, than the more finely worked stones that fill the square of the painting on the opposite side of the temple?
Directly opposite the outside world, the door, is the darkest painting. While in the outer paintings the light on the coal comes from outside, in the darkest painting the light comes from within, from the finely ground coal.
Do you also see the movement the square makes? It goes through a cycle, like the sun. After all, the path to self-knowledge is not a straight line.
The rays of light in the paintings go around in 2 directions: from the west, the outer world, to the inner light, and from the inner light back to the outer world. Each painting is also a fully-fledged painting independently of the others. Because every step in the
cycle is important.
VISITA INTERIORA TERRAE RECTIFICANDO INVENIES OCCULTUM LAPIDEM
7 words. 7 paintings. Each word is the title of a painting.
This Latin proverb freely translated says : ‘Go into the depths of the earth in search of the darkest stone’.
Abbreviated: V.I.T.R.I.O.L.
Do you find these letters in the paintings?
Biënnale Cultuurvuur – untill september 30 – Botanical Garden Meise
info : www.naturainspiratus.be
Friendship Temple, location 51 / AV on the hiking map.
The temple is near “Meise Dorp” entrance, hidden in the greenery.
With your back to entrance Meise Dorp: turn right, then 100 metres further
follow the ‘KUNST ROUTE’ arrow to the left into the bush.
I recently had the pleasure of hosting the authors of the story series ‘Bodem en Kunst’*, which appears in the Dutch professional journal Bodem, in Belgium.
