The crypto-symbolic dike

And the dike series goes on… Wim Kol and I have been working diligently on our ‘Dike Mysticism’ series. In this picture you see Wim’s wife Yvonne with the latest incarnation of the imaginary dike temple.

Although, English speaking friends have pointed out that ‘Dyke’ is now used mostly to indicate lesbian women. This could be a problem with exhibitions (which I am designing as we speak). If this usage has overgrown the traditional original meaning of the word ‘Dike’, we may have to find a different term. While having absolutely no problem with female homosexuality, and understanding that lesbians can be as mystic as the next person, that’s not what this is about. So we may end up with ‘Seawall Mysticism’ or ‘Barrage Mysticism’. Hmmm. Doesn’t have the same ring to it, does it?

Anyway, this fourth dike painting is done in the crypto-symbolistic expressionist style of the middle of the last century. Think Beckmann. The symbols come straight out of my unconscious mind, although I have to say that I had been leafing through a book with Beckmann still lives.

Here is is again, in the background you see Wim Kol working on his Piranesi rendering of the dike. The bird on the foreground is a picture of one of Yvonne’s driftwood sculptures.

It does have that moody, strong willed, slightly disturbing atmosphere of the thirties, doesn’t it?