TRANSCENDENTAL
TRANQUILITY
//OCT 27 - JAN 07//
//NF ART GALLERY//
//KNOKKE//
FADING MEMORIES
"As time goes by memories fade away. What once was sharp, crisp and vivid in our minds, gets blurred. Shapes and colours disappear. No matter how hard we fight. Bits and pieces are gone to never come back.
With Fading Memories I try to visualise this feeling of losing the details. Time has been put to a stop. Details are gone. The images take on a dreamlike surreal atmosphere.
But even the most fragile memory can bring back the whole story. And most of the time, we will remember what is forgotten more beautiful - if
it was tough or hard, softer - than it really was. It's what we do. It's how we survive.
In Fading Memories, I know the story behind the image. The place. The time. The people. You don't. Thanks to what you don't see, the images suggest more open stories than the ones I know. More open stories than they would do if the images were intact. So your mind will create your own story. Immediately. Don't stop it. Have Fading Memories challenge your imagination."
About Transcendental Tranquility
About 超越的静寂
Interview by Sarah J LLoyd
Finish and dimensions
About UKIYO
TRANSCENDENTAL
TRANQUILITY
"I call him the Rothko of photography. Dirk Roseport's works are as much photograph as painting. They are Rothkosian tableaux, intriguing and infinitely layered, inviting an almost meditative experience."
Harry Tupan - Director Drents Museum
In his Transcendental Tranquility series, Roseport withdraws from the pressures of time and positions himself as a receptive presence in the face of the elemental. The ocean, the horizon, and the sky—stripped down to their most austere formal essence—become his sole vocabulary. It is from this disciplined restraint that a body of work emerges that far transcends its apparent simplicity.
Over the years, Transcendental Tranquility has unfolded into an open and deeply contemplative series. Each image stands on its own. At the same time, each image is also an active part of a larger continuum. The subtle variations and repetitions are more reminiscent of the meditations of painting than of the immediacy of photography. Many of the works indeed balance on the border between the photographic and the painterly, inviting prolonged and repeated viewing. The sequential arrangement in a series and the repetitive nature of the image composition invite an almost meditative experience, in which perception slows down and deepens. Different layers gradually reveal themselves, creating a profound silence that is both intimate and expansive. In an era characterized by uncontrollable acceleration and almost incessant psychological overstimulation, his images paint a counter-space - a space in which the viewer can let go of the burden of thinking and enter a state of quiet contemplation.
In a sense - specially in his more recent work – Roseport no longer even photograph seascapes, but uses water, the horizon, and the sky to paint an abstract tableau.They are, rather, abstract fields
constructed through these raw elements. The deliberate central placement of the horizon (or horizontal line) - fundamental element in the composition of many of the images on display - simultaneously structures and liberates the work from any form of hierarchy or convention within photography and the act of viewing it. By employing strategies such as repetition, subtle alienation, and uncontrolled motion blur, Roseport destabilizes the fixity of the photographic image. What initially appears to be a frozen moment begins to unfold over time upon prolonged viewing—almost cinematically—thus suggesting a fluid, perceptual reality. Increasingly, the works also evoke the chromatic sensibility of Mark Rothko, in which color becomes both structure and emotion. Also striking: in an age of often unrestrained manipulation of the indexical truth of the photographic medium, Roseport swears by the authenticity of his images. What we see is what the camera captures at the moment the photograph is taken - unaltered, immediate, and precise.
Audience reactions often attest to the immersive quality of these works: viewers report being drawn into the depths, “losing” themselves in the image until a rare sense of calm emerges. This experiential dimension lies at the heart of Roseport’s project and reflects the artist’s own state of mind during the creative process.
All works are produced as limited editions (3/5/7), with each print accompanied by a signed and numbered certificate.
In zijn Transcendental Tranquility werk trekt Roseport zich terug uit de druk van de tijd en positioneert zich als een ontvankelijke aanwezigheid tegenover het elementaire. De oceaan, de horizon en de lucht – gestript tot hun meest sobere vormelijke essentie – worden hierbij zijn enige vocabulaire. Het is uit deze gedisciplineerde terughoudendheid dat dan een oeuvre ontstaat dat de schijnbare eenvoud ver overstijgt.
In de loop der jaren ontvouwde Transcendental Tranquility zich tot een open en diep contemplatieve serie. Elk beeld is op zichzelf staand. Tegelijk maakt elk beeld ook actief deel uit van een groter continuum. De subtiele variaties en herhalingen doen eerder denken aan de meditaties van de schilderkunst dan aan de directheid van de fotografie. Veel van de werken balanceren inderdaad op de grens tussen het fotografische en het schilderachtige, en nodigen uit tot langdurig en herhaaldelijk kijken. Het sequentiële plaatsen in een reeks en het repetitieve karakter van de beeldcompositie nodigen uit tot een haast meditatieve beleving, waarin de waarneming vertraagt en verdiept. Verschillende lagen openbaren zich geleidelijk, wat een diepgaande stilte oplevert die zowel intiem als uitgestrekt is. In een tijdperk dat wordt gekenmerkt door oncontroleerbare versnelling en haast onophoudelijke psychische overprikkeling, schilderen zijn beelden een tegenruimte – een ruimte waarin de toeschouwer de last van het denken kan loslaten en een toestand van rustige contemplatie kan binnentreden.
In zekere zin fotografeert Roseport - vooral in zijn recentere werk - niet eens meer zeegezichten, maar gebruikt water, horizon en lucht om een abstract tableau te schilderen. Het zijn veeleer abstracte velden
die zijn opgebouwd uit die ruwe elementen. Het bewust centraal plaatsen van de horizon
(-tale lijn), elementair onderdeel in de compositie van vele van de getoonde beelden, structureert en bevrijdt tezelfdertijd van elke vorm van hiërarchie en conventie binnen de fotografie en het kijken daarnaar. Door gebruik te maken van strategieën als herhaling, subtiele vervreemding en ongecontroleerde bewegingsonscherpte, destabiliseert Roseport de vastheid van het fotografische beeld. Wat aanvankelijk een bevroren moment lijkt, begint zich bij langdurige beschouwing in de tijd te ontvouwen – bijna filmisch – en suggereert zo een vloeiende, perceptuele werkelijkheid. Steeds vaker roepen de werken ook de chromatische gevoeligheid van Mark Rothko op, waarbij kleur zowel structuur als emotie wordt. Opvallend ook: in een tijd van dikwijls ongebreidelde manipulatie van de indexicale waarheid van het fotografische medium, zweert Roseport bij de authenticiteit van zijn beelden. Wat we zien is wat de camera registreert op het moment van de opname – ongewijzigd, direct en nauwkeurig.
De reacties van het publiek getuigen vaak van de meeslepende kwaliteit van deze werken: kijkers vertellen dat ze in de diepte worden getrokken, dat ze zichzelf ‘verliezen’ in het beeld totdat er een zeldzaam gevoel van rust opkomt. Deze ervaringsdimensie vormt de kern van Roseports project en weerspiegelt de toestand van de kunstenaar zelf tijdens het creatieve proces.
Alle werken worden geproduceerd als gelimiteerde edities (3/5/7), waarbij elke afdruk vergezeld gaat van een gesigneerd en genummerd certificaat.
Dirk Roseport（ディレク・ローズポート）の被写体の多くは海、オーシャン。
「Transcendental Tranquility - オーシャンズ・プロジェクト」では、絵画の空想的な描写を現代的に表現している：それこそが、21世紀の混乱とは無縁なアーティスト/写真家の表現。
海の自然な営みの中から、一瞬の輝きを切り取る。作品で捉えるのは水、地平線、空の観察描写ではない。
作品が生み出す疎外感は、己を見つめ直し、理解させる未知の空間を作る。それは心地よく、同時にとらえどころがなく、無心に瞑想させる。
海はもはや海ではなく、Rothkosian カラーが印象的なものとなる。見せたいものは海ではない。それは、悩みや精神的な苦痛を取り払い、安らぎを感じるシーン。
作品は無力感と同時に開放感を創出させる。見つめる度に違って見える。常に新たな現実が作られる。
連続的な配置と繰り返される構成 - 水と空が地平線で半分にスライスされる - それが瞑想的な状態を呼び起こす。
水平線を中央に配置する基本構成は、写真のグラデーションと伝統的な表現を同時に捉え、分析させ、見え方を変える。
色と色合いの微妙な変化で空と海を区別し、その遷移を抽象的に表現される。層状の興味深い画像は、見る人を引き込み、現代社会に欠けている安らぎが得られる沈黙を醸し出す。そうして、過剰な刺激の多い現代社会でも落ち着きを取り戻し、穏やかな瞬間が得られる。
何年もかけて発表されてきた Transcendental Tranquility は、ユニークで終わりのない、感情をかき立てる画像シリーズとなった。
被写体の選択、層構造、制作により、Transcendental Tranquility は、写真、絵画、映像が調和する。
画像が自由に操作できること、および被写体が変化することを前提に、ローズポートは、このプロジェクトの画像は一切編集されていない本物であることを証明する。作品が見せるのは、撮影の瞬間にカメラが捉えた情景。
ローズポートは、ベルギー、イギリス、アメリカ、スペイン、イタリア、フランスの海を撮影し、2015年から Transcendental Tranquility に取り組んでいる。プロジェクトでは、定期的に新しい画像が紹介されている。
Interview by Sarah J LLoyd for the Hastings Independent // 06-'17
SJL: Dirk, can I ask you to say something first about what is important to you as an artist, and what you would like people to know about the work?
DR: I’m always surfing the edge between photography and painting. My concern is with creating the tableau, before which people can encounter rhythms of reality. Many people say that the work creates a space where they lose themselves, where their stress drops away and they deeply relax. And that is a strong reason why I make this work also, because this is what happens to me in the process of making it. I get up at crazy hours to do shoots, like 4am in the dark of December in bad weather, and then get totally absorbed in the process of attending to the moments where the work appears, four, six hours can go by like ten minutes in this, and I suddenly realise I've completely disappeared into the making process.
SJL: So it sounds almost similar to the centering, absorption process that happens in meditation. Why ocean though, what is water for you, and why do you think water and sky are so compelling for you as an artist?
DR: I think it's that thing that we come from the water, so somehow it’s a way to return to this deeper state. Taking everything superfluous out is for me the basis of good design, and it returns me to this simpler state in myself. So I strip the making process back to three elements; sky, water, horizon. The immensity of sky and water seems to generate states of calm where what feels troublesome in the psyche drops away. Then interestingly later, after the slowness, we start projecting thoughts onto the tableau again. Our brains seem to tolerate only so much emptiness, before they push to return us to something familiar, and this is often when the water seems to move again, especially in the “Turmoil” pieces, where the horizon is lost and there is only reflected light. It's really fascinating how many people have this response. And I’m not trying to steer anyone in any particular direction.
SJL: I looked at all the work on your website last night, and found myself thinking also of Vija Celmins, Mark Rothko and Agnes Martin, all artists very concerned with inner life. Martin especially described in detail this stripping back of self when she went to draw in the desert. She too was dealing with awe and absorption in immensity, and what happens to our sense of relationality next to that, but she chose barren, dry desert to lose herself in and a strong buddhist meditation practice. It’s interesting that for you it’s water and more an absorption in the active making.
DR: I’m not a professor so I don’t try to explain everything, but I think everyone of us is attracted to water. So sea, horizon and sky comes out of this need I have to strip things back to essential elements and return myself to a sense of origin.
SJL: And why do you choose the particular locations?
DR: I research obviously the light and whether there is a harbour or an island nearby, because then there are just too many ships. But more than that, the location is not really the point.
SJL: So you are saying that the point is more this access to inner life, to the interiority of yourself in the presence of immense landscapes.
DR: Yes and I use the camera as a completely experimental tool there, breaking every rule there is about light and exposure technicalities, because if I was concerned with all that, I would be shooting postcards. But working in this very open intuitive way, everything is unique each time, it’s a consequence of being in a living relationship with materiality, I am not trying to capture it.
SJL: Yes that’s so interesting, I can really hear that, and I see that location would be completely irrelevant if your concern is with this much more fluid and painterly territory on the edges of perception. Thank you so much for your time today Dirk.
Finish and dimensions
Transcendental Tranquility comes printed on high quality Photo Rag Ultra Smooth from Hahnemühle, an extra white 100% cotton-based paper with an extreme soft surface, guaranteeing archival standards.
I chose this paper after careful selection because, with its premium matt ink coating, it meets the highest
Hahnemühle Photo Rag Ultra Smooth
30X45cm - edition of 7 (black wooden frame)
50X75cm - edition of 7 (black wooden frame)
75X150cm - edition of 5 (mounted on dibond)*
100X150cm - edition of 5 (mounted on dibond)
150X150cm - edition of 3* (mounted on dibond)*
150X225cm - edition of 3* (mounted on dibond)**
*limited selection of artworks
**limited selection also available as triptyc
industry standards regarding density, color gamut, color graduation and image sharpness, while preserving that very special touch and feel of genuine paper.
All these characteristics help every print to show an impressive depth of color, subtle gradients and unique softness.
UKIYO
One work consisting of 3 panels 75X150cm. - Editions: 9.
Printed on archival quality Platine Fibre Rag 310g by Hahnemühle, mounted on 3mm Dibond and finished with 3mm Diasec.
UKIYO - literally means "floating world" and describes the moment and feeling when you think of nothing, live "in the moment", detached from the difficulties of life and experience a sense of total relaxation.
I already put this "experience" at the heart of my
Transcendental Tranquility project. UKIYO is a further exploration in the pursuit of this experience.
Whereas in Transcendental Tranquility the works show exactly what the camera captures at the moment of shooting - without any post-production - in UKIYO I use the camera physically to "paint" the tableau. In further post-processing, graphic notes are added to the work, inspired by the Japanese Floating World Picture art form (mid-18th century).