About Mirrors on the Wall Project

I started this project at the end of 1993 and the last work of it was created in March 1998.
"Mirrors on the wall" consists of large water-colors, sometimes combined with oil paint, that represent philosophical or symbolic ideas in the form of stone walls.

Philosophical thoughts are brought back to their essence in such a degree that there remains only an image or symbol. Sometimes, these images start to lead a life of their own, through which new thoughts appear, which, on their return, are reduced to their basic form. I then place the result of this proces on my "Walls".
These walls are intended to act as mirrors which the observer can use to reflect upon himself or thoughts triggered by the images. This is the reason why I called this project "Mirrors on the Wall". The idea is based on observations from Oscar Wilde in his book "The portrait of Dorian Gray". In fact, all my work since 1993 is based on the principals I personally derived from what he said in the first couple of pages of that book, coupled on my own experience with spectators. See Philosophy for more about this.

The forms on these walls are often restricted to geometrical, static forms. The walls give a certain authentic quality on the symbols, it's a bit like when something is printed on paper, it becomes more official. I didn't worked that out consciously, it's an added bonus that I realized later on. These walls look ancient, so their symbols must be ancient and therefore important.
That is what I like viewers to believe, so that they take those symbols seriously. It's not important that the symbols are consciously understood, which is in most cases impossible anyway. The point is that symbols are mirrors who should speak to the imagination of the viewer.

However, in 1997, I also began to work on the Wooden Dimensions project, which gave me a lot more freedom to work with, so Mirrors on the Wall started to become a burden to me. I decided to end the project with a last exhibition in 1998 and then it was finished.

Rudlof Boogerman 19 November 1999