ADAM de BOER

Tegel Twin
Wax-resist, acrylic ink, batik, hide glue on linen
45” x 60”
2018

Adam de Boer's work focuses on his mixed-race heritage as a Dutch-Indonesian American. Tegel Twin also references his personal story of being a fraternal twin.

Informing his artwork, de Boer completed a Fulbright Scholarship in Indonesia where he explored indigenous tile motifs. These tiles were assemblies of styles and symbols from a broad range of locales and histories that intersect after centuries of international trade and colonization. In Tegel Twin, we see motifs as far reaching as Dutch tulips, Moroccan arabesques, and English compass roses. De Boer suggests that the intermixing of cultures and experiences is the rule, not the exception, in understanding culture and identity.

Beyond exploring the conceptual dynamic of mixing, de Boer studied with local artists to learn craft techniques, from traditional Javanese wood carving to the preparation of water buffalo rawhide. In this piece, he uses the fabric dyeing technique of batik to make the image appear on intersecting 'twin' squares.