Loco – motif

When I received the commission to create an artwork for Prorail, I envisaged a design motif that reflected how Prorail connects distant parts of the country creating a network, permitting goods and people to move from and to destinations.

From my research I gathered some fundamental ideas:

Consciously or unconsciously we seek order out of chaos.

We tend to look for patterns which seem to make sense in the knowledge that we have about our world, as well as being aesthetically satisfying in the relationship of each part to the whole.

Humans have been making patterns from time immemorial, as decoration, as symbols or for religious purposes. Some patterns can be connected with certain cultures whilst others are more universal. People, by their settlements, fields, roads, village layouts and towns have subconsciously evolved the landscape to suit their purposes, although they may not have been fully aware of the patterns being created.

From all the networks I brainstormed for me the most intriguing was the neuron, the core of the nervous system that allows us to react thanks to a very sophisticated chemical transmittance system at the nerve endings.
What stroke me is the resemblance of neuron and a network system. It almost looked like there is a subconscious pattern, that recreates itself since primordial times. If we go one step further we have the very bold idea, that maybe any inspiration is a repetition of the creation itself, that was there before. The bad news is, that nothing can be really new , the good news is that it is all there for us to explore. That is where my artwork is parting from: The exploration of the already seen, but nevertheless magic, when seen with new eyes.. A child, who sees a tree for the first time, will stare in awe. But as we are growing older the world surroundings us becomes normal and we take it all for normal. Nevertheless it is not normal.
The sunlight everyday is normal for us…but is it really? Go outside and try really to see the sunlight and appreciate it and you will see how your perception of the whole world changes.
You see the sun penetrating through the trees, you see the reflection of it on a car…etc… We are so caught up in our daily routine, that we don’t look up the sky and appreciate it, just because we think we have seen it before, and we think we know all about it..
So this is where my artwork is coming from, a bow in front of creation, but also an attempt to put the beauty of the creation once again into focus. Cause what you love and admire, you have a hard time to destroy. And taking it even one step further, what you are part of, you will make damn sure you won’t destroy it. We are afraid, that something could happen to your child, but we don’t move when the whole world around us, that we are part of, is getting destroyed. Why don’t we move ? Because we don’t feel part of it.
The neuron is the very core of transmittance. It is responsible for the transmittance of the impulses that are triggered from the outside world to allow us to react accordingly.
But nerve stimulation can also happen just through thought. When we think about all the psychosomatic diseases, that we are having as a reaction of a nervous system, that is overloaded, that can’t handle constant over stimulation, lack of tranquillity and peace of mind.
A system that is under too much pressure needs to unleash the tension through other channels So the neuron also stands for a turning point in all our lives: We can continue to send sick information through our system and pollute it, or we can start to use our networks for what they are built for: Enjoying the very world in which we are living, exchanging their goods and being responsible part of it. Right here and right now.