Lamb of God / Self-portrait 52, after Zubarán

” In Zubarán’s painting of the Lamb of God, the Lamb of God looks at you questioningly. With one eye open, this lamb, its legs bound together, waits for what is to come. When I first saw this painting in person, I become moved. It is like a still life, in which everything seems to be good, only you sense that doom is approaching. Is it the Lamb of God’s resignation that makes this painting so powerful and with it tells us that there is very little we can see and know for ourselves? About many things, after all, we are powerless.”

Ego Vivo / Self-portrait 25

“Who honors themselves with a monument? Many do not, I think so, while life is really a mad miracle. Everyone deserves to erect a monument to themselves during life. Through a CT scan, I had an exact 3D copy made of my upper arm bone. I had this enlarged and cast in bronze and then placed on an impressive pedestal with the text “Ego Vivo” (I am alive). An eight-foot high monument to myself while alive, for inspiration to every other human being.”

Judas

“The apostle Judas was erased from the official line-up of apostles after he betrayed Jesus. And yet without his act, history would have turned out very differently. Judas is hidden here, his spoils in hand. The choice had been made. Only we are only human, and nothing human is alien to us. Judas thus forms a mirror for all of us, all the more reason to show him.”

Untitled 2

In the beginning

“The original English version of the Bible text of Genesis I reads, ‘Then God said: let us make man in our image, after out likeness.’ In this work, I swap the words ‘God’ with ‘AI,’ artificial intelligence, and reverse the words ‘us’ and ‘man.’ Man, who after the Fall thought himself able to discern good and evil, has created a new creator with artificial intelligence.”

In a spirit of brotherhood, "Please officer I can't Breathe"

Lamb Of God / Self-Portrait 50, after Van Eyck

“During a year-long restoration of the Van Eyck brothers’ Lamb God’s, it turned out that the Lamb God’s itself was largely painted over. A very different lamb emerged. This lamb looks at you with an almost human face, direct and very penetrating. It seems to ask that it can only take away sins if you really mean it.Perhaps this confrontational look was the reason for the repainting at the time. I decided to make my own version of the Lamb of God’s, of a lamb visibly exhausted from this repetitive process.”

Family

When you are born, in most cases, you immediately become part of a family, large or small. The close blood tie makes a social group whether you like it or not. But nothing stays the same forever. If at first this group seems unbreakable and indestructible, over time the “skin” becomes thinner. In this work, I have captured my own family members in eternal bronze. A tribute, although I left some gaps here and there.

Personal space / Self-portrait 12

“No matter how much space you occupy yourself, what is at least clear is that what is under your skin belongs to you, there your absolute personal integrity applies. But to whom does the space just outside your stature belong? By constantly sewing together a silicone cast of my own body in a different way, I take on a different volume each time. Sometimes I just want to take up more space. Or perhaps I am twisting myself into all sorts of shapes in order to remain inconspicuous?”

In a spirit of brotherhood, "Please officer I can't Breathe"

Boy

“As a child, you quickly learn that you thrive best in the group. After all as soon as you deviate you become vulnerable. Here is a boy from 10 high exalted on a column. This does not seem entirely voluntary if at all. Yet there is also a pride, with which this boy overcomes his fear and is truly true to who he is.”

Inner Voice

Vera Icon / Self-portrait 10

Imago / Self-portrait 5

Torso / Self-portrait 6

“The Torso Belvedere is known in art history as the symbol of classical sculpture. This sculpture has been part of the collection of the Vatican Museums since 1500. The head, arms and lower legs are missing and precisely because of this fragmentation, many people, including Michelangelo, were very impressed by this statue. In Milan I bought an exact plaster copy of this fragment and embraced it with a silicone copy of my skin. This was then cast in bronze and fused with it into one. Thus I myself became part of art history.For you are not only what you eat, only what you see.”

Judas

“The apostle Judas was erased from the official lineup of apostles after he betrayed Jesus. All the while, without his act, history would have proceeded very differently. Judas then hid, his loot in hand. He has made his choice. Only we are only human, and nothing human is alien to us. Judas thus constitutes a mirror for all of us, all the more reason to show him.”

Torso / Self-portrait 6

“The Torso Belvedere is known in art history as the symbol of classical sculpture. This sculpture has been part of the collection of the Vatican Museums since 1500. The head, arms and lower legs are missing and precisely because of this fragmentation, many people, including Michelangelo, were very impressed by this statue. In Milan I bought an exact plaster copy of this fragment and embraced it with a silicone copy of my skin. This was then cast in bronze and fused with it into one. Thus I myself became part of art history.For you are not only what you eat, only what you see.”

Skeleton / Self-Portrait 20

Self-Portrait 47

Torso / Self-portrait 6

“The Torso Belvedere is known in art history as the symbol of classical sculpture. This sculpture has been part of the collection of the Vatican Museums since 1500. The head, arms and lower legs are missing and precisely because of this fragmentation, many people, including Michelangelo, were very impressed by this statue. In Milan I bought an exact plaster copy of this fragment and embraced it with a silicone copy of my skin. This was then cast in bronze and fused with it into one. Thus I myself became part of art history.For you are not only what you eat, only what you see.”

Don't Be Afraid Of Becoming A Bench / Self-Portrait 28

Inner Voice

Inner Voice

David / Self-portrait 11

“In Milan I bought a plaster part copy of the original of Michelangelo’s five-meter-high marble David: the head of David. I wanted to make an attempt to measure up to heroism. Therefore, I covered David’s head with silicone casts of my own face. What at first appears to be a pockmarked mask is a collage of numerous full-size versions of my face. Because of the difference in scale, it is now clear that Michelangelo himself transformed David into a giant.”

Self-portrait 40

Prayer Nut

Skin And Bone / Self-Portrait 24

“Sometimes the human body can feel like a structure, architecture you can walk around in. Your own body as a city where the inhabitants live together. This is my own city, bringing together my most important information carriers for my identity: my skeleton together with my skin.”

Torso / Self-portrait 6

“The Torso Belvedere is known in art history as the symbol of classical sculpture. This sculpture has been part of the collection of the Vatican Museums since 1500. The head, arms and lower legs are missing and precisely because of this fragmentation, many people, including Michelangelo, were very impressed by this statue. In Milan I bought an exact plaster copy of this fragment and embraced it with a silicone copy of my skin. This was then cast in bronze and fused with it into one. Thus I myself became part of art history.For you are not only what you eat, only what you see.”

Ego Vivo / Self-portrait 25

“Who honors themselves with a monument? Many do not, I think so, while life is an insane miracle. Everyone deserves to erect a monument to themselves during life. Through a CT scan, I had an exact 3D copy made of my upper arm bone. I had this enlarged and cast in bronze and then placed on a pedestal. An eight-foot-tall monument to myself in life, for inspiration to every other human being.”

Pietà

“Michelangelo’s Pietà, the grieving Mary with her deceased son in her arms, is one of the most perfect images in the history of art. Not only is it totally balanced, it exudes the power of the institution where it stands. Mary’s mourning is physical, something under her skin, impossible for us to see or feel. To allow this to be experienced, I decided to turn the composition of Michelangelo’s sculpture inside out to turn the subcutaneous mourning outward. This formed a raw image. Mary is present here only in the form of the cloak, giving the viewer a chance to occupy this space. With that, this Pietà is a monument to all mothers with murdered sons.”

Vanitas / Self-Portrait 35

Vita Subsidiaria Calva - Humerus / Self-Portrait 31

Let Us Make Man

“In Rome, I was able to look at Michelangelo’s fresco in the Sistine Chapel for a long time. In the center of the ceiling he painted God’s creation of Adam: God reaches out with his hand from a cloud to the naked Adam, the representation of the divine creation of man. Of course, we know by now that things have changed, but a new question has now been added: how will humanity continue to evolve? Have we, by developing self-learning computers, not created a new creation’ force that will soon be our own power beyond? For the two cases in Let Us Make Man, I took the two poses of the God and Adam from Michelangelo’s fresco. Adam is on the left and God is on the right. Only I opened the case for the flying God. It is the question of whether the new creator will be satisfied with this space. “

Self-Portrait 16

Grow Box / Self-Portrait 39

In a spirit of brotherhood, "Please officer I can't Breathe"

Plinth Portrait / Self-portrait 29

“Sculptors often have to deal with the so-called ‘pedestal problem.’ This is now inherent in the existence of gravity. Does the pedestal belong to the sculpture and form a unit or is it only a practical form. In this work I want to deal with this for once by fusing pedestal and sculpture. It seems as if the pedestal here has swallowed up the sculpture and fossilized over time. Too bad man is just not old enough to appear as a fossil yet. So man should hold out here for a while.”

Point Of View

“The context from which you look into the world determines your interpretation of a situation. The only question is how voluntary your interpretation is, and whether you’re aware of it. This case has the shape of a kneeling man. It has a color that is deliberately chosen. It is the color orange of the overalls worn both by the prisoners in Guantánamo Bay and by the hostages held by the terrorist movement IS. terror movement, hostages. One of IS’s most famous hostages was the American press photographer James Wright Foley. In 2014, ISIS distributed videos of him on his knees, wearing an orange overall, with the aim of instilling fear. To me, this typical orange color represents the inhumanity in both environments, with which ‘Point of View’ whatsoever, is overshadowed by infinite suffering.”

Untitled 4

“The look in a child’s eyes makes you melt as an adult. By leaving out precisely the part of the face to which we attribute the most personality, you look beyond the eyes into the pitch black, immeasurable depths of young life. I want to show the beauty of a blank slate. Everything can still be formed – and perhaps we secretly long back to that time.

Self-portrait 3

Self-Portrait 2

Innocenzo X

Vera Icon / Self-portrait 10

Skeleton / Self-Portrait 20

Skeleton / Self-Portrait 20

Skeleton / Self-Portrait 22

Book

Pietà

“Michelangelo’s Pietà, the grieving Mary with her deceased son in her arms, is one of the most perfect images in the history of art. Not only is it totally balanced, it exudes the power of the institution where it stands. Mary’s mourning is physical, something under her skin, impossible for us to see or feel. To allow this to be experienced, I decided to turn the composition of Michelangelo’s sculpture inside out to turn the subcutaneous mourning outward. This formed a raw image. Mary is present here only in the form of the cloak, giving the viewer a chance to occupy this space. With that, this Pietà is a monument to all mothers with murdered sons.”

Universum Liberum /Self-portrait 41

“How nice it is to take home something small from places where you have found hope and beauty as a reminder. For example, you can buy a commemorative coin after completing your pilgrimage to Lourdes. I created this small work because sometimes relativity is desperately needed, especially in a free world. In exchange for only two euros, you can obtain a genuine Mountain Coin. On the coin, a halo shines behind my portrait, and on the coin is the text “Ego Vivo Sanctus,” or “I live holy,” in the “Universum Liberum” (the free world). Secretly, of course, I hope that as a reminder of my work, people will walk around the globe with this coin in their pockets.”

In Case

Universe / Self-Portrait 38, Study

Are You Talking To Me

“What happens when you are completely silent and retreat into your deepest being. Who is talking to you? What does your inner self say? Is it a world that is endlessly vast or oppressively small? This bronze box has an image on four sides; two closed eyes on the outside and an image of a mouth and an ear on the inside. By moving the work, I play with these thoughts. Sometimes I look outside and just other times I listen. Do I hear complaining, do I hear future dreams, do I talk myself into courage for my functioning in the physical world, or do I hear something else after all? In meditation, silence is a moment of spiritual practice, an attempt to expand the mind so I can make contact with an immeasurable space. What or who I hear in this universe is unclear, leaving the question: Are you talking to me?”

Self-Portrait 40

Judas

“The apostle Judas was erased from the official lineup of apostles after he betrayed Jesus. All the while, without his act, history would have proceeded very differently. Judas is hidden here, his loot in hand. He has made his choice. Only we are only human, and nothing human is alien to us. Judas thus forms a mirror for all of us, all the more reason to show him.

Lamb of God / Self-portrait 50, after Van Eyck

“During a year-long restoration of the Van Eyck brothers’ Lamb God’s, it turned out that the Lamb God’s itself was largely painted over. A very different lamb emerged. This lamb looks at you with an almost human face, direct and very penetrating. It seems to ask that it can only take away sins if you really mean it.Perhaps this confrontational look was the reason for the repainting at the time. I decided to make my own version of the Lamb of God’s, of a lamb visibly exhausted from this repetitive process.”

Ego Vivo / Self-portrait 25

Group

Lamb of God / Self-portrait 52, after Zubarán

Judas

“The apostle Judas, after betraying Jesus, was erased from the official line-up of twelve apostles. And yet history would have been very different without his act. Judas is hidden here, his loot in hand. The choice had been made. Only we are only human and nothing human is alien to us. Judas thus forms a mirror for us all, all the more reason to show it.”

Lamb Of God / Self-portrait 50, after Zubarán

Inner Voice

Pietà

“Michelangelo’s Pietà, the mourning Mary with her deceased son in her arms, is one of the most perfect images from art history. Not only is it totally balanced, it also exudes the power of the institution where it stands. Mary’s mourning is physical, something under her skin, impossible for us to see or feel. In order to experience, I decided to turn the composition of Michelangelo’s sculpture inside out in order to make the subcutaneous grief outwardly. This formed a rough picture. Mary is present here only in the form of the mantle, allowing the viewer to occupy this space. This makes this Pietà a monument For all mothers with dead sons.”

Personal space / Self-portrait 12

“No matter how much space you occupy yourself, what is at least clear is that what is under your skin belongs to you, there your absolute personal integrity applies. But to whom does the space just outside your stature belong? By constantly sewing together a silicone cast of my own body in a different way, I take on a different volume each time. Sometimes I just want to take up more space. Or perhaps I am twisting myself into all sorts of shapes in order to remain inconspicuous?”

Inner Voice

Narcissus / Self-portrait 15

“We must be careful not to look at our own reflection too much so that, like the mythological Narcissus, we fall in love with ourselves and waste away.”

Inner Voice

Attraction / Self-portrait 30

“Each at its own pace, 172 balloons descend from the cloudy sky. Dangling from each balloon is a part of the human skeleton. All those parts gather at the spectator’s feet, and together can form a human skeleton. When all the balloons have landed, the sun appears behind the clouds. As if with that, a burden from heaven has finally descended into the light, like a new beginning.”

Family

“When you are born, in most cases, you immediately belong to a family, big or small. The close blood tie makes a social group whether you like it or not. But nothing stays the same forever. If at first this group seems unbreakable and indestructible, over time the “skin” becomes thinner. In this work, I have captured my own family members in eternal bronze. A tribute, although I left some gaps here and there.”

Family

“When you are born, in most cases, you immediately belong to a family, big or small. The close blood tie makes a social group whether you like it or not. But nothing stays the same forever. If at first this group seems unbreakable and indestructible, over time the “skin” becomes thinner. In this work, I have captured my own family members in eternal bronze. A tribute, although I left some gaps here and there.”

In Case

Vera Icon / Self-portrait 10

Ego Vivo / Self-portrait 25

“Who honors themselves with a monument? Many do not, I think so, while life is an insane miracle. Everyone deserves to erect a monument to themselves during life. Through a CT scan, I had an exact 3D copy made of my upper arm bone. I had this enlarged and cast in bronze and then placed on a pedestal. An eight-foot-tall monument to myself in life, for inspiration to every other human being.”

Let Us Make Man

“In Rome, I was able to look at Michelangelo’s fresco in the Sistine Chapel for a long time. In the center of the ceiling he painted God’s creation of Adam: God reaches out with his hand from a cloud to the naked Adam, the representation of the divine creation of man. Of course, by now we know that things have changed, only now a new question has been added; how will humanity continue to evolve? By developing self-learning computers, have we not created a new creation ‘s power that will soon exceed our own? For the two cases in Let Us Make Man, I took the two poses of the God and Adam from Michelangelo’s fresco. Adam is on the left and God on the right. Only I opened the suitcase for the flying God. The question is whether the new creator will be satisfied with this space. “

In a spirit of brotherhood, "Please officer I can't Breathe"

“In the daily world news, sometimes images come along that you can no longer look away from and that lead to action action. The footage of the murder of George Floyd in 2020 had a huge impact. Not only did I feel the horror of what had happened, I also felt that I had something to do with it. But as a white man something to say about it, being a white man over 50. With the extent of institutional racism made so painfully visible, I struggled with this question. I decided to record this event and literally shut it up in a case. This case constitutes an abstraction of those contents. The moment you as an outsider discover what the contents of the case might be, you are forced to relate to it. And should you still have doubts, in the high gloss of this black suitcase you will automatically encounter your own reflection, there is no escape. “

David / Self-portrait 11

“In Milan I bought a plaster part copy of the original of Michelangelo’s five-meter-high marble David: the head of David. I wanted to make an attempt to measure up to heroism. Therefore, I covered David’s head with silicone casts of my own face. What at first appears to be a pockmarked mask is a collage of numerous full-size versions of my face. Because of the difference in scale, it is now clear that Michelangelo himself transformed David into a giant.”

Self-portrait 9

Skeleton / Self-Portrait 20

Skeleton / Self-Portrait 20

Innocenzo X

Skin And Bone / Self-Portrait 24

“Sometimes the human body can feel like a structure, architecture you can walk around in. Your own body as a city where the inhabitants live together. This is my own city, bringing together my most important information carriers for my identity: my skeleton together with my skin.”

Lamb Of God / Self-portrait 50, after Van Eyck

Skeleton / Self-Portrait 22

“How special life can feel with a body and a mind in which everything is possible. It’s a miracle that it came about like this. Life is set in motion through a chain reaction. It must have started from nothing at some point. Aristotle argued that there must have been an ‘unmoved mover’. I was set in motion by my parents, and I honour them in this silver skull – a skull that is an exact copy of my own, obtained using a CT scan. And because humans construct their own bodies independently after conception, I also honour my own creative power, in imitation of the inscription on Dürer’s self-portrait from 1500; as a self-aware creative artist, I write: ‘I, Caspar Berger of Amsterdam, copied my skull thus in immortal silver at the age of forty-seven years.”

Universe / Self-portrait 45

Mary with Child

Family

“When you are born, in most cases, you immediately belong to a family, big or small. The close blood tie makes a social group whether you like it or not. But nothing stays the same forever. If at first this group seems unbreakable and indestructible, over time the “skin” becomes thinner. In this work, I have captured my own family members in eternal bronze. A tribute, although I left some gaps here and there.”

Mirror Bone / Self-Portrait 33

Imago / Self-portrait 5

Don't Be Afraid Of Becoming A Bench / Self-Portrait 28

“It is fascinating to look at millions of years old fossils of animals. In addition, this makes it extra clear how young we humans still are, we still have millions of years to go before we can be viewed. We do worry about the climate now, only viewed from the perspective of the whole earth, none of this poses a problem, it recovers itself. So it is actually about our own chances of survival. Suppose in 200 million years there were a creature that needed a few benches and sawed them out of a piece of stone from a mountain. Let me have fallen and died right there. So my skeleton then sits like fossils in this quarried stone. I poured all my skeleton bones into marble cement and divided them into five containers. These trays were then filled with terrazzo. After this hardened completely, I was able to expose the bones with a grinder. The visitor is now more or less forced to sit on the finality of a species called ‘Homo sapiens.'”

Guten Berger / Self-portrait 37

“Because of all the scientific research, we know a lot about our body, how it is created and how our biological machine works. But there are also things we still don’t know and are still viewed as miracles. The question is also, despite unbridled curiosity, whether we should want to know everything. With the total unraveling of creation, should we want to open Pandora’s box. Here I made parts from copies of my own skeleton out of sealing wax. The way to make sure the secret is the seal itself.”

Inner Bone / Self-Portrait 26

“This bone of my humerus, an exact copy of my own upper arm bone, is made of ebony, one of the noblest types of wood in existence. From the same ebony, and exact fitting box was made around it. Like a sarcophagus, it sits seamlessly around the bone, well protected for the next life.”

Declaration Of Sanctity / Self-Portrait 23

Torso / Self-portrait 6

“The Torso Belvedere is known in art history as the symbol of classical sculpture. This sculpture has been part of the collection of the Vatican Museums since 1500. The head, arms and lower legs are missing and precisely because of this fragmentation, many people, including Michelangelo, were very impressed by this statue. In Milan I bought an exact plaster copy of this fragment and embraced it with a silicone copy of my skin. This was then cast in bronze and fused with it into one. Thus I myself became part of art history.For you are not only what you eat, only what you see.”

Torso RM / Self-portrait 6

“The Torso Belvedere is known in art history as the symbol of classical sculpture. This sculpture has been part of the collection of the Vatican Museums since 1500. The head, arms and lower legs are missing and precisely because of this fragmentation, many people, including Michelangelo, were very impressed by this statue. In Milan I bought an exact plaster copy of this fragment and embraced it with a silicone copy of my skin. This was then cast in bronze and fused with it into one. Thus I myself became part of art history.For you are not only what you eat, only what you see.”

Culture Glass / Self-portrait 32

Should I Stay Or Should I Go / Self-Portrait 46

Self-Portrait 40

Narcissus / Self-portrait 15

“We must be careful not to look at our own reflection too much so that, like the mythological Narcissus, we fall in love with ourselves and waste away.”

Narcissus / Self-portrait 15

“We must be careful not to look at our own reflection too much so that, like the mythological Narcissus, we fall in love with ourselves and waste away.”

Self-Portrait 4

Self-Portrait 7

“How we look into the world is partly determined by the people around us and the geographic place where we grow up. My location is Christian-oriented, and that shapes my view, whether I like it or not. Not that that is a problem, just awareness of it is important. This bronze skin, a cast of my own skin, hangs on the wall, It hangs with its arms spread, its head drooping and its feet lying across each other. An association is easily made. After all, Crucifix means “attached to a cross.”

Self-Portrait 14

“Sometimes you want to push something into a jar to stop time for a while, preserved closed off from the outside air. The silver face, as a mirror of my own, I enlarged through the round glass and liquid. It gives weight to this moment in time, captured for a moment and preserved for eternity.”

Ego Vivo / Self-portrait 25

“Who honors themselves with a monument? Many do not, I think so, while life is an insane miracle. Everyone deserves to erect a monument to themselves during life. Through a CT scan, I had an exact 3D copy made of my upper arm bone. I had this enlarged and cast in bronze and then placed on a pedestal. An eight-foot-tall monument to myself in life, for inspiration to every other human being.”

Skeleton / Self-Portrait 21

Torso / Self-portrait 6

“The Torso Belvedere is known in art history as the symbol of classical sculpture. This sculpture has been part of the collection of the Vatican Museums since 1500. The head, arms and lower legs are missing and precisely because of this fragmentation, many people, including Michelangelo, were very impressed by this statue. In Milan I bought an exact plaster copy of this fragment and embraced it with a silicone copy of my skin. This was then cast in bronze and fused with it into one. Thus I myself became part of art history.For you are not only what you eat, only what you see.”

Self-portrait 3

Attraction / Self-portrait 30

“Each at its own pace, 172 balloons descend from the cloudy sky. Dangling from each balloon is a part of the human skeleton. All those parts gather at the spectator’s feet, and together can form a human skeleton. When all the balloons have landed, the sun appears behind the clouds. As if with that, a burden from heaven has finally descended into the light, like a new beginning.”

Untitled 8

Movements

“We move all day long, often without consciously thinking about it. But greater significance has been attributed to some movements than to others, and some have even been banned. In the late 19th century, Eadweard Muybridge made geometric analyses of moving animals and people. The movements themselves had no particular significance. I have applied Muybridge’s method to the meaningful and sometimes charged movements of the nine ‘isms’ from the work Inner Voice. They thus become like geometric dance steps, stripped of meaning and therefore of any interpretation. But unlike Eadweard Muybridge’s analyses, the meaning appears to surpass the dance steps and the movements are nevertheless occupied.”