Lennon in the Green

"Lennon in the Green" begins with removal, not addition. Out of a field of individual marks, controlled surface damage set into deep green coloured mirror glass, the familiar three quarter tilt of John Lennon's face rises out of the dark, round glasses turned toward a single hard light, hair falling loose around a jaw held still and thoughtful.

From across the room the portrait reads whole and monumental, a face caught mid thought against total black. Step closer and it breaks apart into a field of fine scratches, the coarse halftone grain of an old screen print reborn on the shadow side of the face, while the lit side stays smooth and open, a plane of pure green shine. The image sits in the surface of the glass, not applied onto it, so the face feels less drawn than uncovered.

Green is not a neutral choice here. It is the colour Lennon reached for when he sang of a world remade, of gardens and growing things, of peace as something you could still plant. In this work green becomes memory with a pulse, the colour of an idea that outlived the man who first gave it words.

Because this is mirror glass, the portrait is never alone in its frame. The room around it, its walls, its light fittings, its passing visitors, drifts into the dark ground and settles among the scratches. Stand close and your own reflection folds into his collar, into the space behind his glasses, so that looking at the work becomes a small way of taking part in it.

The face is always present here, in every kind of light, since the marks themselves carry the image rather than any coating laid over it. Direct light does not summon it out of nothing, it sharpens what was already cut into the glass, letting the contrast deepen and the green surface hold its shine a little longer.

"Lennon in the Green" continues the Art on Mirror series by Tijs Dragtsma, in which scratched imagery is set into coloured mirror glass and the viewer becomes part of the work. A visual language where damage is not destruction, but structure.

"Imagine a face held together by nothing but light and its own absence."

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.