Emergo
Paul van Twist (°1960, Nederland) once enjoyed a successful career as electronics developer and as manager of a large electronic company. In 2005 he decided he had enough and leapt to the world of art.
A recurring theme in his work, the artist plays around with water in ‘Emergo’. A grid is reflected in the water. When the start button is pushed, the image is slowly erased and then built up again – drop by drop. The first drops are little more than isolated islands, each with all the necessary visual information: a miniature version of the grid. As more drops fall, the islands grow and cluster together in the most unexpected of ways. Eventually they merge together to create a smooth surface once again. The machine mimics an emotional process. Everyone faced with a serious setback in life has to adapt in order to move on. Sometimes, however, people don’t manage to return to normal life, or only superficially so. ‘Emergo’ means ‘I surface’. The Emergo machine illustrates how a destroyed world gradually repairs itself, and how man gets on his feet again.