It was in this play with inversion, seeing both the image and it's negative, that the idea of my Pope project was born. The metaphor of black and white photography as if I take a snapshot right now on this moment. The vitrine turns into a darkroom, a meeting point for the studio procedures and gestures - with paint, crayons, found objects etc.- inside and the world wide opera, or do we need to say tragedy, arriving from the outside. Hence the idea of placing both the Popes as negative image at the bottom of the vitrine, suggesting an uncertain spooky tipping point just like the experience inside the darkroom, when the exposed paper is drenched in developing fluid and the first traces of the image emerge. Subsequently I needed the innocent lamb nested in a sort of wreath or wonderful protective tissue (working on that), some Italian stone pines, as we are told is Italy the epicenter of the virus outbreak in Europe, and last but not least a Blackbird.
I can almost hear you think, sure Roos, but why a Blackbird? I am fortunate, not living in a city but in the dunes near the beach and the North Sea, a house surrounded by a garden with old trees. Many stories about the place, going back to the second World War and some go back even further. The house is called De Merel, a Dutch name for Blackbird. And when I write this I hear the male Blackbird frantically sing his wonderful song again, unhindered by the shocking events on the world stage. What a sweet inspiration, that is exactly how i should proceed my work.
