Where We Become

Where We Become is a contemporary artwork about closeness, union, and the moment two presences dissolve into one.

Two figures hold each other. Their bodies have grown so close that the silhouette no longer separates them. In the deep shadow and the single soft light, they have become one form. One shape. One weight.

The image does not appear through paint or ink. It emerges through controlled scratches on acrylic glass, drawn from the surface by removal, not addition. The figures exist because the material has been altered. No pigment. No print. Only the light that finds what has been taken away.

From a distance, the work presents itself as a single monumental silhouette, calm and still. Up close, the surface opens into a field of controlled surface damage, each mark catching the light differently as the viewer shifts. The figures appear, then soften, then return.

That movement mirrors the subject. To hold someone so close that you share a silhouette is to let go of the clean line between self and other. The surface knows that feeling. It has given something up. What remains is a new kind of presence.

Where We Become continues the Art with Scratch series by Tijs Dragtsma, in which imagery is constructed through controlled surface damage rather than pigment or print. A visual language where damage is not destruction, but structure.

"Where two figures stood, one form remains."

More about the artist, process and materials can be found on the About page.

Questions about this work, availability or shipping can be sent through the contact page.