location: Vlissingen, Netherlands
Artist: Joram Roukes
For: Royal Flush Vlissingen
Year: 2023
Photo Credits: Joram Roukes
“Vlissingen is a city in the Provence of Zeeland, in the very far south of the Netherlands, known for many historically documented battles, invasions and political turmoil. The city’s credo is ‘Luctor et Emergo’, meaning to struggle and arise, referring to all that the city has overcome and to how they have rebuilt after. The most commonly made assumption however, is that the slogan refers to the immense disaster the city endured during the 1952 floods.
In an attempt to not approach the project as a historian, I painted an osprey as a metaphor of struggling with the water. Anyone who has ever seen an osprey dive-bomb onto a prey in the water understands what this means. Also, osprey are known to build onto their nests each breeding season, much like white-tailed or bald eagles do. Making their nests into immense strongholds over time.
The last slide shows an actual osprey that I observed once I returned home. Almost like a nod of approval from life itself. Funny how these things happen sometimes.”
Joram Roukes
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Categories: OperArt, Street art
Barbara Picci 