2008-03-13T08:08:00.000-07:00

OPIUM FIELDS

about the concept:
The dual nature of the opiates is expressed by their ability to relieve pain and suffering on the one side and the fact that they are capable of plunging long-term users into the hopelessness of addiction without return. Opium is at once a remedy and a poison.Opium fields exist in open culture in India and Turkey and in hidden plantations of the Asian Golden Crescent of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan and the Golden Triangle formed by Burma, Laos and Thailand.
The cycle of the life-saving and life-destroying papaver somniferum, between the romantic flowering and the brutal human interventions by incision of the bulb to liberate the precious substance - shows a very limited time span where the opium field seems suspended in an unreal atmosphere of calm and tranquility.

This rare moment, coupled to the existing dualities concerning opium plants, the paradoxal qualities of the photographic medium itself and the typical golden hues of the adopted photographic technique have the power to create a new surrealistic world of veiled mystery, surrounding the existence of opium fields.

A series of 13 Orotypes, 25x40cm mounted on 56x76cm Arches Platine paper of 320g as original examples of the concept was created during the summer of 2006. These examples will eventually be executed in larger dimensions. Orotypes can be executed in dimensions ranging from 4x5" to 105x120cm.

roger kockaerts