ACDC

Arthur Cordier : I hope you are well. I’m very happy we are working on this exhibition together.

We met at K.L.8, the studio space you co-organise in Brussels. What struck me was the scale of the canvases in contrast with the nonchalant hierarchy of the images you use. Would you like to introduce your practice ? 

Dilum Coppens : I like to think of the painting as a clay tablet where some parts have disappeared somewhere in history, while other parts show the subtle remains of what was once applied. I want to create relics with a type of knowledge and mythology that has been forgotten, but carries something contemporary. I reached a good epitome of this in the work “Statements on the inertial energy of the Sun”. The images carry a specific meaning : a place I found fascinating, a memory or an allegorical anecdote. I want to subtly reference love, Aphrodite, or the science behind light, the Sun and its energy. 

A.C. : The image of the bird picking its food from the Sun is a beautiful image. I perceived it as a combination of the largest scope of human kind – planets and their rotations – and the rather small and localized equilibrium of things, birds feeding from fruits and flowers. Somehow you bring them together. Like you said it is subjective and open to interpretation. It could feel as a random association yet it says something about them as parts of the systems we live in. Seasons happen for a reason. And flowers bloom. 

D.C. : I started a serie which deals with loneliness, as both a desirable and frightening condition. I’ve found myself on both ends of that spectrum lately. I thought it might be nice to show these paintings. My work is based on mythological ruins, and I try to capture that feel with the materiality. I think it’s a matter of bringing the work there and work with the space.