Esse Est Percipi #whatever

A trail of drool is running from the corner of his mouth, deep into his neck. Besides the stack of twelve empty pizza boxes adorning his head, like a crown of greasy cardboard, he has colourful markings all over his face. Some are drawings, some almost illegible texts. Does that one sentence read: "I suck cock for crack"? From the shine of the lines, one thing is sure. The marker that was used, is definitely waterproof...

Esse est percipi, meaning: to be is to be perceived, refers to a statement by the 18th-century philosopher George Berkeley, who argued that things can only exist through the perception of human beings. In this series, the main-work is a collection of 12 boxes. Each box contains 12 portraits of passed-out-drunk-people. All re-drawn in watercolor and color-pencil. Literally lifting them up from their prone position, spending hours on the minute details, the snapshot that seemed nothing more than a prank, slowly transform in a depiction of a prince or princess. Registered at an unfortunate moment. Vulnerable, innocent, ridiculed and shamed. It might sound weird, but for me, there is an almost unlimited beauty in these images. For me they represent the fact that we are all worthless pieces of dust, in the fast enormity of space and time, no matter who we are. This makes us all, really equals to each other. Not birthplace, not politics, not status, not religion, not race, not wealth. Nothingness! That is what really makes us equal. I love it!