Justin Wijers
The subject of my work is human suffering that is being dispersed on the internet. Websites full of victims of violence and racism are my source of inspiration. The victims in my work are a selection of a huge amount of pictures; therefore they symbolize all victims of murder, accidents and war. I want to show this suffering to the general public by means of a medium that most people can understand, and more important, accept. I lure de viewers in a trap of beauty to let them face the reality that most people continuously suppress. My work is an ode to all the deceased people whom I depict; I feel like a plastic surgeon who gives back beauty to a deformed body or a funeral director who prepares a body. The wounds and the blood are concealed by an organic ensemble of lines, text and underlying little drawings that originate in free association with my own frustrations and thoughts that rise up when I’m working. A language that both expresses desperate powerlessness and frustration as well as a strong sense of engagement.