Luchtgevecht 1951 - 1953

David Ketel made this small photographic slide entitled 'Luchtgevecht.' The sky is a clear blue canvas, dotted with the cotton wool of clouds, while the landscape stretches into the horizon, blurring the boundaries between earth and sky. But it's the planes that really capture the imagination. I wonder what Ketel was thinking as he captured this moment? Was he contemplating the beauty of the landscape, or the sheer, awesome power of these war machines? It's fascinating how a simple landscape can be transformed into a site of conflict and tension by the addition of these planes. Painting, like photography, can be a form of embodied expression. It embraces ambiguity and uncertainty and allows for multiple interpretations. Just like Ketel, artists are in an ongoing conversation with each other.