Work by Erik Hoedemakers
Speaking in riddles.
Sometimes, upon reading a riddle, you are immediately struck by its meaning. But it is uncommon to understand what it pertains to straight away. Most often when you read a riddle, you have to stop and think. Ouch.
Riddle me
It is a small discomfort that grows the longer you have it with you in its unsolved state. Just like when you are taunted by a tiny stone in your shoe that you are determined to wriggle back out. Knowing fine well that the quickest way to be rid of it is to remove your shoe but… sometimes you are in too much of a hurry, sometimes you tell yourself you must be able to pop it back out in the same way it popped in, sometimes you just go head to head with the little stone, to finally sit down and remove your shoe and discover really just how small the little rascal was. Leaving you uncertain that this is indeed the source of your discomfort.
Arts & Crafts
So too, it is with arts and crafts.
They are as intriguing and illusive as a riddle can be and, at the same time, as irritating as a stone in your shoe. Sometimes you connect with the maker and instantly know what they are saying through their work. But this is the visual language of the arts and so it is not unusual for it to be a slow burn. Where the proverbial thousand words almost always fall short. Just like with the persistent riddle you solve and the tiny stone you ultimately fish out of your shoe, there is no guarantee you have what you believe it to be.
This is no exact science. And as much as we embrace the certainty of a train timetable, we are equally easily happy with an approximate weather forecast. Although neither of them are actually guarantees. Even if we perceive them as such. Yet with the arts nothing is certain and we know that from the start. All the same, it takes the challenge of comprehension up a notch.
The riddle plays with words that create pictures that, once solved, turn back into words.
A picture or object plays with associations and challenges perceptions that ultimately console you.
I have four legs but cannot walk.
When occupied moving back and forth.
I crack and creak but cannot talk.
Do you know me?
Forgive me for speaking in riddles