Job Koelewijn

Poetry, literature and philosophy play an important role in the work of Job Koelewijn. Having grown up in Spakenburg, under the influence of the Reformed Church, Koelewijn is highly aware of the essence of words and the magic of language. He packaged boullion cubes, for instance, in lines of poetry; made a giant stamp with the words Be More Specific; and on 1 February 2006 he started his Ongoing Reading Project, for which he reads aloud for precisely forty-five minutes every day. These sessions are consistently recorded, both on old-fashioned cassette tapes and in digital files.

In recent years the artist produced a number of stencils showing timeless statements, mantras that contain a captivating contradiction. The same can be said about Be Realistic Plan for a Miracle, a quote from Bhagwan guro Osho which Koelewijn appropriated, as it were, for this work. 'The idea of polarity is an important aspect of my work,' says Koelewijn. 'And the more you reflect on it, the more fundamental and pervasive this becomes: day/night, high/low, warm/cold – concepts that keep each other in balance.' Such opposites are, in fact, inextricably linked with each other. The words Be Realistic... can be read as a contradiction between everyday reality and the boundless possibilities of art. But for Koelewijn the statement represents, above all, an exhortation to live a disciplined manner, and to take small steps from there in order to realize one's objectives.

The repetition of these words eventually causes them to be 'internalized' like a mantra. Koelewijn wrote the text on the wall countless times, continually shifting the stencil by a mere fraction. This gives rise to a contrast between the firm statement and its echo, which 'vibrates' slightly. With the colors blue, red, yellow and green he evoked an image of four voices repeating this mantra. Ultimately, says the artist, reading the stencilled work serves as an exercise, and it thus becomes a source of strength that can be beneficial to all.