Gert Motmans & Ronin de Goede

Between nowhere and elsewhere

I’m more interested in expressing subjective emotions through abstract prints than in replicating images and forms in the objective world .

• Onchi Koshiro  -

The idea for “Between nowhere and elsewhere” begins when Ronin reaches out to Gert at the end of 2021 and stems from a mutual respect an appreciation for each others art.

Not being able to meet in person due to Covid restrictions Ronin decided to send a black box to Gert containing test strips and misprints from his previous series such as ‘Asakusa’, ‘Corvus black’ and ‘tales of solitude’ with the message “you have carte blanche” 

About a year later this resulted in a series of 12 unique hand cut  collages .

“At the time when I received the box I was working on my series ‘now it’s day, but I am dreaming” so it took a while before I started going through the material Ronin sent me. I wanted to give the project my full attention and treat the work of Ronin with respect, I wanted to create something that would in a way glorify the existing image while being true to myself and my aesthetic. Our respective work has some parallels but we are also very different.

I started by sorting out the images I was drawn to Intuitively and let the work arise from there.

Motmans’ art is often influenced by modernism and so is this particular series, more specifically influenced by the work of onchi koshiro a Japanese print-maker from the 20th century and inspirer of the sõsaku-hanga movement, an art movement stressing the artist as the sole creator motivated by a desire for self-expression, and advocating principles of art that is "self-drawn" (自画 jiga), "self-carved" (自刻 jikoku) and "self-printed" (自摺 jizuri).