Harijs Brants

Harijs Brants (1970)

Harijs Brants in his charcoal drawings tries to investigate things that are non-existent in real life and tries to draw them academically correctly - to create an intrigue for the spectator.
The artist has the power to create a simultaneously surreal and sensuous black and white world, inhabited by anatomical and technical hybrids, influenced by science fiction.
Harijs Brants works at night, when the parallel world becomes active, it is important fof him to lift it out of the imagination, the unconscious.

Harijs Brants : "Drawing"

The most important things in life are the invisible ones - friendship, joy, love, peace and so on. These things are not subject to human calculation; they cannot be bought for money or acquired by force or guile. Before they are expressed externally, these things happen in our inner world. This is a world where phenomena such as one's world view, notions of the structure of the universe and outlook on life are created and changed.

I call it my inner room. It's the place where my stories are born and live; a place where, in solitude, a person can encounter himself. Sometimes I get the feeling you can be more real there than in the outside world. The question then arises whether this other reality isn't more real than the usual, generally accepted reality?

For me drawing is a means whereby I can attempt to answer this question. Drawing is the opportunity to stay a while in the inner room and to experience it.

I find this unknown territory to be the most interesting to work with (to observe, explore); to strive to perceive and make out those moods I felt already back in my schooldays when I would shut myself off for several hours to draw.

I'm interested in transforming this invisible world into a visible one, to allow it to happen or prove to itself that it exists.

My drawings are like a continuation of the search for a new inner reality where the mind's eye depicts new variations of situations involving various images and assigning to them different and unusual functions and different interpretations of their meaning.

I have created a series of charcoal drawings that are mainly portraits.

For me the portrait is like an opportunity to open the door to another reality. If I can't draw the invisible world, then at least I can draw the images through which this world lives. In portraits our inner world looks at us.

The portrait in my opinion is the most suitable means for attempting to establish communication between these two realities - the visible and the invisible.

With a portrait one can achieve greater psychological intensity - a greater effect on the viewer. Important for me is the intrigue of the encounter that could happen between me and the viewer and that which has been depicted in the portrait.

I'm interested in what the viewers' faces will say.

I do much searching for people's faces in images. I look for people who aren't there. Then I draw them and there they are. They've arrived.

A realistic drawing method, a voluminous, tonally nuanced and scrupulously detailed drawing serves to achieve a greater impression of credibility in what has been depicted in the drawing and stimulates a sense of presence.

In the contemporary world (situation) of misunderstood values, this inner room is perhaps the most suitable place in which to find refuge from the tyranny of the pace of civilisation today. It is an invitation to stop and not become involved in the global confusion created by this tyranny. It is a place where, in contemplation, you can gain a deeper understanding of the order of things and renew the harmony with yourself.