CEDRIC VANDERLINDEN

Each work arises out of a reflection on the sublimity of the cosmos and the existential angst that arises naturally in contemplative silences. They emerge as a response to experiences of the numinous and direct encounters with the void where only loss and isolation exist.

The works are overwhelmingly two dimensional, focusing excessively on the surfaces, the textures, and the imaginative spaces created by the balances and contrasts of formal elements. The surfaces, and only the surfaces, are witnesses to the archaeological process of layering, of problem solving, of the simultaneous erosion and emergence of forms. This prevents the works from operating as autonomous objects, and invites the viewer to contemplate them as windows into a space beyond a threshold. In this way, they draw attention to their failure to represent the Sublime (even as absent content), the numinous, and the infinity of loss. They stand as quiet testaments to man's failures to capture any essence and anything beyond the surfaces, which invite and deny any real grasp.
In response, the viewer arrives at a conclusion: the human condition is one of loss, and any attempt to account for that loss will inevitably fail. That failure is both Sublime and Abject.

Some of the work does not always fall into this narrow aim but, sometimes, emerges organically as part of the creative process. Due to this parallel development, and because their creation overlapped thematically with certain aspects of the grand aim, they are occasionally included as either reference material or completed works.