Who am I, why am I here? What is infinity? What is reality?
While contemplating on these existential topics, and in search of the answer to the big Why are we here?, Samuel Dejong translates his fascination with reality into the perfection of the natural forms and the smallest living matter.
As a self-taught artist with a medical background in surgery, bio-engineering and design, he stretches the limits of technical as well as aesthetic potential, applying the precision of a surgeon to fine art. For only with an open mind, free of preconceptions, can one accomplish what initially seemed impossible, and thereby elevate something relatively inconspicuous - or disconcerting even - to the level of art. He takes his role seriously – that one of an artist who wishes to trigger the awakening of the consciousness.
Surgery has taught him persistence, precision, anatomy, the beauty of perfection and the delicacy of life. Science has taught him to look deeper, beyond, to look for serendipity and try to understand what the essential elements of life are. He tries to combine this knowledge and integrate it into his art.
One of the returning subjects in Samuel Dejong’s oeuvre are the small creatures that can at times make us wonder about the beauty of nature, while they can at other moments awaken aversion and even fear in many of us. With his art, Samuel Dejong challenges us to witness the beauty of the foundation of our ecosystem: insects. No other creatures are as elegant and fragile yet so strong and indestructible. They embody pure aesthetics, with their utmost detailed perfection. Many artists have used them to create beautiful works of art. Samuel Dejong wants to add an extra element to insects in art: life and motion!
On his artistic journey that manifests the many realms of beauty, he departs into more abstract forms; yet the link to nature remains. Seeking inspiration in history, science, nature, as well as art movements like De Stijl, Nouveau Réalisme, Biomorphism, Surrealism and Spatialism, Samuel Dejong strives for harmony and equilibrium – to create art through perfection. In a world full of chaos there are places where everything is at peace.
