Het From 29 may to 2 October, the stedelijk museum schiedam will present recent paintings by Wouter van Riessen. His work focuses mainly on self-portraits. However, where the self-portrait is normally based on a resemblance with the maker, Van Riessen takes the self-image as his starting point. In his paintings we see cyclopes, conjurors, saints and strange dolls with vacant faces. Are these really self-portraits? What should a self-portrait depict? The face of the maker perhaps? A revelation of his true identity? Van Riessen works in the opposite direction. For his paintings he first makes collages with pictures that appeal to him, combines them, reshapes them and manipulates their significance. He works on them until he feels that the figures are close to him.

Van Riessen regards the self-portrait as a portrait of the self. He visualizes this abstract theme by means of symbols and metaphors. One of the figures that he uses is the Cyclops (2008), which represents, to him, an inability to step out of oneself. The single eye stands for the restrictions of one’s own field of vision. It is difficult to experience space with only one eye, to see things in perspective. The Cyclops has a jumping jack under his arm, which is based on a model that Van Riessen implemented in wood (Jumping Jack, 2002). The wooden doll is more than a life-size self-portrait that can be set in motion by the viewer. In itself, a jumping jack doll already has the connotation of being something without an own will. In this painting, the doll is nestled as a stiff plank under the arm of the Cyclops, who is advancing hesitantly through the twilight.

Another source of inspiration is Barbapapa, the animation figure, which is shown on the painting entitled Appearance (2010). It is strange that Barbapapa can change shape at will, but nevertheless always remains himself: for example, he assumes the form of a lion, but none the less you can still recognize Barbapapa. It is up to the spectator, as was the case with the jumping jack doll, to bring the figures on the canvas to life. In itself, this is perhaps less strange than it seems, people do it constantly. And this process of projecting and animating goes much further than seeing human expressions in dolls, paintings or electric sockets.

Van Riessen uses various techniques in his paintings. Some areas are smooth, others have been coarsely brushed, yet others are very cartoonesque. He regards that as a reflection of the subjective manner in which we perceive things. You look at a pair of trousers differently than you look at a hand, for example, or at an eye in a different way than you look at a lip. Van Riessen’s self-portraits are in limbo, somewhere between dolls and people. For years he has been a fan of the story of Pinocchio, the doll who wants to be a real boy. He talks, sings and moans, but still there is something lacking. He is not alive.

There are quite a few religious representations in his latest work. In religion, just as in art, a parallel world is presented. Religion says: where things surpass our understanding, we rely on our faith. Art has a different approach. Things about which you cannot speak can nevertheless be depicted. Art enables one to enter the imaginary world of others and thus to enlarge one’s field of vision.

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Gloed van Binnen / Inner Glow. Een gesprek met Wouter van Riessen door Nickel van Duijvenboden (An interview with Wouter van Riessen by Nickel van Duijvenboden). Publisher: ROMA Publications, Amsterdam. The book is on sale in the Museum shop for € 10.