Is nature a place, an all-encompassing system, or an ideal that we carry within us? The work of Bas Ketelaars (NL) emerges from an interest in the problem of representing nature. A nature that is unreachably far away and yet all around us. Where does culture end and nature begin, or is there really a difference?

With the romantic tradition in mind, Ketelaars explores the landscape in a personal and experiential way. Hereby he is interested in both the means of photography and drawing in order to create images where different systems produce the image together. Proximity and distance, space, transparency, densification, or transformation, can be the starting point of his work. In his photographs, he explores the space between the lens and the vista. By using that space, not only the space but also the artist becomes visible. The speed and efficiency of the photograph contrasts with the manual slowness of the drawing. Seclusion in nature becomes seclusion in the studio.

Residencies are an important part of Ketelaars’ practice, often as a starting point for creating new work. One of his recent visits was to Białowieza National Park in Poland, famous among biologists for being located in the heart of the largest primeval forest of Europe. Ther he took photographs, often in sequences, moving small details in each image or using filters that he places between the camera and the subject. Always in search of a new representation of nature.

Edges of Landscape is a work in itself in which Ketelaars combines his photographic material with drawings in an experimental manner for the first time.