The Blind Date project is about five confrontations of five pairs of artists. During a short period prior to the World Wide Video Festival they react to each other's work and thinking. This will result in five combined presentations.
That a painting can have an enormous impact is evident from the work of Ronald Ophuis. Violent scenes like the rape of two minors by three adult football players in a grimy dressing room in 'Sweet Violence' (1996) or a group of boy scouts forcing a boy to have intercourse with a cow in 'Padvinders' (1997) caused quite a stir. Issues like child pornography were vehemently discussed and within the art world Ophuis's work was soon labelled as 'socially committed'. His aim however is to fight against the ephemeral nature of scenes of war and violence in the media, and to confront himself and the viewer with the tragic and the suffering. In order to visualize this as realistically as possible he uses age-old methods: in his studio he works with tableaux vivants. The models are chosen for their character and he photographs the location of his subject beforehand. He starts off by painting a background where the figures are later fitted in. Ophuis is a storyteller. He wants to paint a good story. According to him, this is the same thing as a good painting: a charged moment where things come together. Rather like a still from a film, only better. He does see films as competition. The impact of a movie like 'Apocalypse Now' on an audience can be enormous. This is what Ophuis wishes to achieve with his paintings also. He attempts to capture the dark side of mankind in his work. The situations he depicts could happen to anyone and the viewer is forced to empathize, either as victim or as perpetrator. Ophuis confronts his audience with human nature.
Ophuis' blind date is Swedish artist Magnus Wallin.
– Nathalie Zonnenberg
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Production: W139, World Wide Video Festival
Ronald Ophuis ° 1968, Hengelo (The Netherlands)
Lives and works in Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
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