Tijs Dragtsma (1992) - A Fist of Quiet Embers

A heavy bunch of grapes hangs free on the vine, full and weighted, yet not one grape here catches ordinary light. The fruit sits unlit, black, folded in on itself inside a deep black void where nothing else is allowed to exist. Behind the bunch a pale glow gathers, then gives way to black again long before it reaches the edge of the frame. Only along the topmost grapes does a pair of thin bright lines survive, the last visible seam of something otherwise banked down to char. This is A Fist of Quiet Embers, a clenched hand of fruit holding its own warmth rather than letting it go. Nothing here is painted or printed. The image is scratched into the surface of deep red coloured mirror glass, built through controlled surface damage rather than anything added. From across the room the grapes read as one dense, monumental form. Come closer and that form opens into a field of controlled scratches, each one a small decision, together carrying all the weight and shadow. Red carries as much of the meaning here as the drawing does, the colour of banked heat, of fruit before it becomes wine, of a glow kept low and private instead of let loose. It does not decorate the image, it is the ember the fist is holding. The scratches are always there, in daylight, in shadow, at any hour. Light does not create the image. It sharpens it. Under a directed light the surface catches, the contrast deepens, and that pair of bright lines along the topmost grapes flares a little brighter. Away from that light the grapes are still entirely visible, unchanged in shape and weight. What shifts is only the reflection around them, never the fruit itself. That reflection is the room, and it is you. Around and between the scratches, the coloured mirror glass keeps doing what mirrors do, holding whoever stands in front of it, so the black void is never quite empty. A Fist of Quiet Embers continues the Art on Mirror series by Tijs Dragtsma, in which scratched imagery is set into coloured mirror glass and the viewer becomes part of the work. A visual language where damage is not destruction, but structure, and where the mirror turns looking into taking part. "A quiet fire, held instead of shown." About Art on Mirror – Red Art on Mirror is a body of work in which the image is scratched into coloured mirror glass, and the world in front of the work becomes part of it. Every line is cut into a deep red mirrored surface of acrylic glass. The scratches are always there, bright against the colour, while the surface around them keeps reflecting the room, the daylight and the person looking. From a distance the image reads clear and complete, a pale figure held in a field of red. Step closer and the work opens into a delicate web of individual marks, fine and deliberate, each one essential to the whole. Behind and between them the mirror does what a mirror does. It carries the room and the viewer into the composition, so the surroundings in the work change with the place where it hangs, while the image itself stays firmly in place. Light does not create the image. It sharpens it. The red ground absorbs and reflects, the scratched lines catch and hold, and under a focused spotlight the contrast deepens until the figure takes on a sculptural, almost luminous quality. In softer light the colour comes forward and the work settles into a quieter register, without ever losing its subject. Red is the colour of blood, of fire and of everything we cannot stay calm about. That is the emotional ground every work in this series is set against, and the subjects are chosen to belong to it. Art on Mirror continues the scratched imagery of Art with Scratch by Tijs Dragtsma on a new ground. Where the black works draw their power from absence, these draw it from reflection. The viewer is no longer only looking at the work. The viewer is in it. About the Artist My name is Tijs Dragtsma, founder of TD Fine Art Studio. As an artist, I am driven by a constant desire to explore new visual languages. I do not see art as a fixed style, but as an evolving field of discovery where material, structure, light and emotion come together. My work often begins with a simple question. How can a material speak in a new way. How can hardness become intimacy. How can precision create emotion. That search lies at the heart of everything I create. Within TD Fine Art Studio, each body of work is approached as its own world, with its own logic, atmosphere and visual identity. Some works are built through rhythm, repetition and structure. Others emerge through absence, shadow, reflection or tension. What connects them is a shared commitment to originality, clarity and emotional presence. I am fascinated by contrast. Between strength and fragility. Between control and feeling. Between what is visible and what is left open to interpretation. My goal is not simply to make an image, but to create a work that holds attention, invites reflection and continues to reveal itself over time. TD Fine Art Studio is the space in which these explorations come together. It is not only a studio, but an evolving artistic universe shaped by curiosity, precision and the ambition to create work that feels distinctive, intentional and alive.

Estimación:€3,500

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