'This is how As One should be: wandering through the drawers, becoming absorbed in their landscapes of language and image, losing yourself in paper forms and the white that lies behind them. Recovering what was lost to life.' - Lex ter Braak
The inspiration for this monograph by visual artist Lex ter Braak (b. 1950) came from a chest of drawers in his studio in Haarlem. The chest contains a collection of works, including Polaroids, drawings, paintings, works on paper, textile pieces, and fragments that have been torn or shredded, all waiting for the moment when a drawer is opened.
In 'As One. Wanderings', these Drawing Pieces, together with other highlights of his oeuvre, are compiled into a publication. Ter Braak weaves together a tapestry of fragments, creating a fabric of interconnected life forms. He states that nothing in the world exists in isolation; everything is interconnected, regardless of how much we attempt to organise reality through division, distinction, and systematisation. This organisation is a human construct that obscures the natural web of connections from our perception and understanding.
For the publication, Lex ter Braak has written a text for each drawer, presented in both Dutch and English. While browsing through the book, Dutch readers can also listen to Ter Braak's voice, which serves as an audio layer linked to the publication.
Lex ter Braak studied Dutch and comparative literature and attended the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. In addition to being an artist, he is well-known as an organiser, curator, and former director of De Vleeshal in Middelburg, Fund BKVB, and the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht. He also taught at the Rietveld Academie and the Sandberg Institute. Ter Braak is a writer and critic; his publications include Schaduw werk (2019), contributions to the ongoing series The Alphabet of Lost Order (2020), and his novel Levensvormen (2021).
