A timid power

I interview artists for a full hour every week for the podcast, investigating the themes in their work. Because of that, when I’m at home, I prefer to look at work that immediately moves me in a visual way. Like this work by Maaike Kramer: it is an enigmatic combination of graphite and aerosol can on paper, glued to aluminum. It's small, about 20x20 cm, but it contains a whole landscape of tiny dots, stripes and lines.

It looks like a treasure map, but a hesitant one.

It looks like a treasure map, but a hesitant one: one carefully trying to formulate a road, it's pulled back again, battered and folded in half, it has a light and a dark side and all kinds of shades of gray in between, and at the same time the work exudes a timid power, it is there, and has something to offer for those who have an eye for that what doesn't scream for attention.

Ode to doubt

The work is placed between other works of art and objects that my girlfriend and I like to look at, such as one of the neon letters of the closed Circus Renz and a ‘school' of sushi for shopping windows that we got in Japan. The goal is to create a space that is light, cheerful and beautiful, because I am convinced that it has an effect on your own attitude towards life. For me, this work by Maaike is an ode to the doubt, the attempt, which in itself already has value and strength, regardless of whether the attempt actually results in anything tangible.