Harm van den Berg
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[Texts]
Judith van Meeuwen
Peter van der Meijden
Len Borgdorff
Press
Processes of drawing: beauty in complexity
Judith van MeeuwenRecently, I had the pleasure of meeting the artist and viewing his drawings in his Amsterdam studio. There, the drawings lie vulnerably on the table - sturdy white sheets in various sizes. Precious and fragile. At first, I hardly dare look, afraid to disturb their order. Later, the artist points to two spots on the studio wall. Suddenly, you realize the drawings could be anywhere. Like thoughts emerging from a rhizome, a root system, they can surface wherever the artist’s graphite pencil decides. With Harm van den Berg’s drawings, you immediately sense the artist’s wonder at the nature of things - wonder at natural phenomena and the laws that govern them. I would like to highlight a few of these phenomena:
Chain reactionsEach drawing has a single starting point, a single origin from which the work unfolds. Never multiple beginnings on one sheet. The drawings can be seen as notations of a moment, a growth phase of an undefined process. Sequences of identical forms - chains of squares, circles, triangles, or lines in a precise, regular rhythm. Like silent chain reactions: cause and effect. One notation directs the next. But it is the artist who determines when it begins and ends.
The power of repetition
Through the endless repetition of small marks, the drawn process becomes a pattern. A recognizable rhythm for the mind, creating an instinctive logic, even though you cannot quite name what you are seeing.
Micro and macro
It is as if you are peering through a magnifying glass at a petri dish, watching tiny building blocks interact. Yet, at the same time, it is a translation of the starry sky, of celestial bodies seeking connection.
Time
As a viewer, you know the artist has invested considerable time and energy in each drawing. Philosopher Henri Bergson (1859–1941) distinguished between clock time and experienced, inner time (la durée). It would be wonderful if the viewer took the inner time to truly engage with the drawing. Harm’s work offers ample opportunity for this and deserves to be experienced at length.
Movement
The sequences of marks, in straight and curved lines, create the suggestion of movement, frozen motion. And not just on a flat surface. By varying the pressure of the pencil, the artist suggests depth, making the spectacle spatial. The association with music is clear.
Chance
The patterns and lines seem to arise by chance. Is there an algorithm at work? Each drawing unfolds differently, undirected, unstructured, without purpose. Yet only a highly practiced hand can apply this automatic notation so perfectly. And from chance, we arrive at the meaningful phenomenon of emergence, where chance also plays a role.
Emergence
The title of the book is Emerge. In Dutch: emergent - spontaneously arising, coming into being. The development of complex, organized systems gives rise to new properties. For me, this is a complex concept, not easily grasped, but I sense it is a fitting term for the work. While researching emergence, I came across a photo of a murmuration of starlings in flight, a stunning example of a phenomenon not yet fully explained.
In conclusion
In our conversation, the word monnikenwerk (monk’s work) came up. I thought of a monk in serene silence, illuminating a manuscript in the scriptorium, working with full concentration on beautiful script and scholarship. But to my surprise, Stoett’s Dutch Proverbs and Sayings defines monnikenwerk as futile labor, requiring much patience and time; unnecessary effort. Another definition describes it as an unspectacular task demanding great care and perseverance… I must firmly distance myself from the first. I find your work the result of spectacular action and well worth continuing!
Judith D. van Meeuwen (1967) studied art history in Leiden after completing teacher training in drawing. She worked as a final editor for Kunstbeeld magazine and has been a curator at Kunsthal KAdE in Amersfoort since 2008. Her special interest lies in themes at the intersection of visual art, design, and the natural sciences.