At the same time
Michaël Aerts' oeuvre reveals a profound interest in the complexity of perception, experience, and contemplation. He connects naturally his sense of reflection and analysis with forms, shapes, and colours in two- and three-dimensional works. He creates objects, sculptures, installations, drawings, and paintings, in which themes such as time and space are intertwined with his urge to understand. In this exhibition, he focuses mainly on questioning what lies beyond the reach of the visible, how an integral image can be formed, and how that experience can be achieved: the possibility of the simultaneous.
He is fascinated by the possibility or impossibility of what can present itself simultaneously and be perfectly visible at the same time. In painting for instance, it is in a sense feasible to contemplate all the visual elements at the same moment. The canvas unfolds itself in its entirety, with the various colours and shapes appearing simultaneously. In sculpture, however, it proves impossible to see the different sides of the work in one glimpse. It is only by moving around that you can see the whole artwork and conceive an all-inclusive image through the different views and angles.
Moreover, in his sculptures, you can discern a great interest in monuments from the past with busts and portraits as symbols of political or religious power. In his paintings, Michaël Aerts evokes iconographic components of the Flemish Primitives, such as architectural vistas, fragments of landscapes, and garments with deep folds. For example, in Rogier van der Weyden's works, you can simultaneously view both the figures of saints and the interiors in which they are presented, along with the surroundings shown through the windows. You can observe Madonna or Christ in the foreground as sharply as a semicircular niche or a multi-coloured tapestry evoked in the background. An absolute possibility of simultaneity and a perspective on an imaginary spatiality is clearly invoked.
In this series, Michaël Aerts therefore refers to that integral synchronous experience, blending certain connections and thus presenting a layered and complete image. In the many drawings and sketches that precede his canvases, he shows the twists of the folds in the fabrics, the draperies with shadow lines, and the sculptural character of the simplified forms. His paintings grow from these numerous designs, evolving further with translucent oil paint on rough canvas, using olive green and Prussian blue, or grey, red, and orange. The concrete starting point of an existing or recognizable motif becomes abstract, and the possible references remain visible in the underlayers while a new image is composed in the various glaze layers.
Michaël Aerts gradually seeks the right tones for the final composition by repeatedly building up, erasing, rebuilding, and finishing the many layers. Each painting honestly tells the story of its creation process; all the individual elements are dismantlable or traceable, and from each layer, facets remain, both what was washed away but also what was added. With his entire body, he mixes the paint into colours that complement each other: blacks and whites, red-violet, indigo, pink, or brown. His colour palette is absorbed by the coarsely woven linen, and in the granules of damar resin, it becomes evident how he has turned those colours into matter. Each canvas is quite large and imbued with marks, traces, and touches, making the experience of it not only physical but also emotional. The tension lies in the fact that nothing is concealed; quite the contrary. Everyday life also creeps in, while creating the work, and in this pavilion, which offers a view of the surroundings, the countryside with fields, trees, clouds, and shadows. As a viewer, you are drawn into his universe, a world interwoven with numerous underlying meanings, inviting you to unravel and reassemble reality. In one movement. And an instant moment. - Els Wuyts
