"I Recollect drawings athletes I admired, sunsets during holidays or paintings like Rembrandt's 'Night Watch'. Since my early childhood this has been my way of processing moments of connection, finding out what it was that made these impressions valuable to me.

And now, looking for the 'life' or the 'still' in a still life, I feel more than ever I'm stopping time, boxing these objects that are or once were owned by collectors, artists, scientists or museums. Every object brings its own story by its very presence.

Dealing with time, the spirit of objects and their worth, I started incorporating Japanese beliefs and philosophies like animism, kintsugi or mono no aware, in my work.

With my studio based in Leiden and working around collection and Japan, I naturally crossed paths with Dr. Franz van Siebold who lived both in Leiden and Deshima. He started collecting for scientific reasons focusing on flora and fauna, but quickly broadened his scope dreaming to one day open his own Japanese museum. Without physically possessing most of the objects in this book, it is through my work that they become part of my collection:

I surround myself with old Jomon vases, rare Edo period ginger jars as well as Wisteria plants brought to the Hortus Botanicus Leiden garden by van Siebold. 

I rework, add my language, question and admire.

I Recollect." - Casper Faassen