Runaway clocks, ticking like time bombs on stagnant people. Fragments of faces overgrown by plants and mosses. African masks displace ego driven businessmen in uniforms.

The paintings of Tessel Braam (1982) consist of contrasting ingredients that always relate to each other in a different way. They clash, but still look for a possible reconciliation.

In her work Tessel Braam searches with torn newspapers, charcoal and East-Indian ink as her material for a character. Surrounded and intersected by organic shapes in oil paint she breaks through the static elements of a portrait. The character in the portrait symbolizes the greater power of our present system. The question she looks up with her works, one that continues to fascinate, is which force is stronger. The ancient power of nature or the one of rational humans.

Braam believes that humanity is at a crucial turning point in history. The Anthropocene runs like a thread through the work. By placing ourselves above nature and thereby alienating ourselves from our origin we are rapidly threatening all life on earth with extinction, including ourselves. Braam is looking for new forms to become part of the larger whole again.