Night and Day at the Flatland


 
 
 

Basic Information

Title: Night and Day at the Flatland

Sizes: 60cm by 50cm

Materials: Silk Gloss Paint, Glowinthedark Paint, Cotton Canvas

Made: 20/10/2015

Availability: €100,- (excl. shipping costs)

 

Concept

Night and Day in the Flatland is a concept with multiple layers.

First of all it shows a 3d painting on a 2d canvas.

Second, the title Night and Day in the Flatland.

Let's break up this title. Flat can be used as a word to describe a 2d spatial entity. This refers again to the 2d of the canvas. However if we talk about a flat as a building it's more of a 3d spatial entity.

Another layer is added by using glow in the dark paint. If you look at the painting during the night the windows light up as if the building is being used. The phrase Night and Day in the title refers to this layer.

Last but not least the coloring of the flat. In Dutch we call vague, not that bright colors flets. If you would pronounce this word it sounds like flats. I've tried to use this so called flets coloring in the windows and by using a lot of grey.

 

Background Story

At the same day I sketched the Music Box I sketched idea for Night and Day in the Flatland. I tried to interwove horizontal and vertical beams. I already did this before with Window of Opportunity but this time I tried to put the beams closer together in a way that I could make it look like a building.

With the sketch in my notebook I overthought the idea a bit. I wanted to do more with the building. The sketched building created a lot of opportunities. What kind of building should I make? One of these days I looked at the paintings on my wall, looked at What's Up Dog and remembered how I got the inspiration for it at my grandma's flat.

My thoughts went to my grandma's flat. My grandma lives on the top floor of a flat. When I visited her we talked sometimes about the fact that she likes her house a lot and that in my childhood I used to draw a flat once. My grandma always added that I told her as a little kid, that I would make a flat for our whole family and that she would live on the top floor.

Thinking about this story, the word flat stayed in my mind. What an absurd word that was. On the one hand you name an high rise apartment buildings a flat, on the other hand you also speak about flat if there's hardly any relief. At that moment I knew I founded the concept and needed to make a flat.

I also wanted to explore a bit more color and paint wise. I want to try to get away a bit from the 2d boundaries of the canvas anyways and this could be a step towards it. So why not try some glow in the dark paint. It could really add something to the idea of the flat and make it a bit more lively, as if there's people living in the flat that put their lights on when it gets dark.


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