Cas Slagboom

Cas Slagboom
Born and raised in Vlissingen, Zeeland, The Netherlands. As a child I discovered the analog photography process in my father's darkroom. This turned out to be a continuous learning process, a drive to manipulate the technology, to tell a story.

Before I started as a visual artist, I spent years in the wild as a mountaineer. Looking for a confrontation with life and wondering about the strength and urge to survive. There I started drawing. And that never stopped. The fascination with the relationship we have with nature as a complex and amazing ecosystem has arisen from my unwavering curiosity and to share my vision with others.

Take a look at the website www.casslagboom.nl.

Habitat
This project is the starting point for my work. It is an ongoing search for visual language for the fascinating and complex relationship between people and the environment. It forms the basis for my autonomous work and for assignments.

We live on this planet, but we don't really know how to do that. There is also no unambiguous answer. As an artist / photographer I want to make our human desires and dilemmas visible in an artistic way and to encourage us to think about our role in the complex ecosystem on which we depend.

I think the image we form of reality is only part of the story. It is always from the human perspective, and the accompanying idea, that we have a responsibility that may be greater than we can bear. Of course it is impossible for me as a human to escape that perspective. Still, I want to give it a try, because I think that curiosity about the unknown is an essential source of inspiration. I don't have to go far to search for that unknown, I just have to shake up the world I know. With the rearranged images that this produces, I try to show the magic of the world in which we live.

Either way, this world is the most bizarre, creative and inspiring experience I will know as a human being. As an Alice in Wonderland, we all walk around in an environment that we may want, but cannot understand. It is too complex for that. I also don't think the goal is that we can analyze and control everything. In my view, that would be an arrogant endeavor. However, anticipation is something we can do well, and it has been the formula for success of the human species until now. This requires knowledge, but also awareness. The awareness that our environment is not a tool but an essential part of ourselves, and the realization that we are not the most important factor in it, but only part of a fascinating system, can ensure that we apply our knowledge with different insights.

I think this realization and the action that comes from it is our only chance for survival. The great thing is that we have the right properties. And also, as never before, we have the technology needed to share that consciousness.

I want my art to help in that awareness.