Casper Faassen

'Perfectly Imperfect': Casper Faassen (1975)

 In the works of the Dutch artist Casper Faassen the juxtaposition between the eternal and the temporal, beauty and decay, is the main theme. Over time, Faassen has begun to incorporate Japanese philosophies into his work, such as ‘mono no aware’, a slightly melancholic feeling when one realises that all things pass. Also in his series ‘ReCollection’, the appreciation of impermanence and imperfection can be spotted. Such as the veiled images of the photographed breakable objects, disappearing into the background. The use of gold in the cracks on the top layer of the works, the ‘craquelure’, refers to kintsugi, to the beauty that comes with age and the beauty of imperfection.

Faassen’s other work - a view on the sea - powerfully draws one’s gaze into an infinite space, a ‘near-nothingness’. What is still visible, what not? What does looking at this sea do with one’s thoughts? Do they disappear? Is there silence? Or, do dreams and new chances appear? By using a mirror as a background within the art work, Faassen entices us to have a reflective moment, an experience of wabi-sabi.