Suspended Blurr

Berend came across this scene when he was in China. In the Netherlands, you rarely see meat hanging like this. Maybe we think it looks too much like flesh that way. Flesh as part of a living being instead of something to consume.

In the top left corner, you might see something you can’t quite place. The artist told us during his visit to the LAM that it is a plastic bag. A bag around a fan.

Meat, we were told, is best ripened and dried in a cool place with circulating air.  Flies can get stuck in the fan, so it’s best to cover it when not in use. Meat with dead flies is not an attractive sight.

Berend Strik often chooses commonplace subjects for his pieces. One of his artworks features the back of a garbage truck. A subject doesn’t have to be chic or expensive: it’s all about how you look at it.

Berend has been creating embroidered paintings since the end of the 1980s. Just like Michael Raedecker, whose work you can see in room three.