(Con) Textual

Within the framework of he Onomatopee project 'By Method of Reasoning' Rudi Laermans, a critical sociologist, described how the visual can't express itself without a textual frame. Without text and explanation, the visual form would be limited in its communicative reach. This also holds the other way round, as Onomatopee demonstrated with Jack Segbars' project 'Rondom': the textual form also has its own sphere of display. Eindhoven-based artist Anne Dijkstra and Rotterdam-based artist Peter Koole both create 'flat works' such as drawings and paintings, in which they relate visual documentation to inter-textual, autonomous reconfigurations. By operating through textual deconstruction and exploring the connotative area(s) between original truth and subjective truth, these artists visually question our reading of acceptable literary anchor points such as daily news items (Koole) and classic literature (Dijkstra). By using what could almost be considered design typologies, they de- and reconstruct this framework. These statements enable them to (open up the possibility to) engage in an ethical debate concerning our reception of the visual: what do we really read.

According to Bas Kwakman, director of Poetry international and himself educated artist, visual artists are often too autonomously distanced to utilise the textual, literary discipline. Frank Lubbers, art consultant, insightfully maps out both literary and visual qualities in regard of manifest, proper art, while Freek Lomme describes why this artistic landscape could be worthwhile in our current cultural sphere.