Tijs Dragtsma (1992) - A Stair Falls Upward

Two towers face each other across a fall that should not work. A staircase leaves the first at its highest point, drops in one long diagonal all the way to the ground, and somehow arrives at the second tower exactly as high as where it started. The eye follows every step and still cannot explain the climb. No paint. No print. No ink. The stair, the crenellations, the long diagonal line of the fall exist because the surface has been taken away, a field of fine scratches worked into acrylic glass until each step holds its own edge of light, falling and rising in the same unbroken gesture. The image is always present in the acrylic glass, in full daylight as much as under a single trained lamp. Light does not create what you see here. It sharpens it, so that under a direct source the stair gathers more shine and the fall reads sharper, while from another angle the same structure settles into something quieter, closer to a thought you are still working out. From across a room the two towers and the stair between them read as one impossible silhouette, pale architecture cut whole out of the dark. Walk closer and that certainty dissolves into controlled surface damage, a field of individual marks that only agrees to be a staircase again once you step back. Beneath the geometry sits a familiar feeling, the step that should bring you down and somehow leaves you no lower than before, the long day that ends back at the same landing it began. A Stair Falls Upward does not resolve that feeling, it just builds a place sturdy enough to hold it. A Stair Falls Upward belongs to Look Twice, a series within Art with Scratch by Tijs Dragtsma in which imagery is constructed through controlled surface damage rather than pigment or print, and in which that same damage becomes a way of letting a single descent arrive exactly as high as it began. "Some stairs are not built to take you anywhere. They are built so you keep walking." About Art with Scratch Art with Scratch is a body of work in which the image is not drawn, but released. Carved line by line into a deep black surface, each work emerges through countless precise scratches that catch the light and bring form out of darkness. From a distance, the image appears almost photographic. Powerful, recognisable and full of presence. Yet up close, the work dissolves into a dense field of individual marks. Fine, fragile and almost weightless. What seemed solid reveals itself as a delicate web of lines, each one a deliberate gesture, each one essential to the whole. Light does not create the image. It sharpens it. The black surface absorbs, while the scratched lines reflect. As light shifts across the surface, the image breathes. From one angle the figure stands clear and defined. From another it softens and settles back toward the darkness from which it came, without ever disappearing. Under a focused spotlight, the contrast deepens and the image takes on a sculptural, almost luminous quality. What makes this medium so compelling is its quiet tension. The act of scratching is direct and irreversible. Every line is a decision that cannot be undone. Yet the result is not harsh. It is intimate, atmospheric and alive with movement. Hardness becomes softness. Destruction becomes creation. Absence becomes presence. In works such as this portrait, the figure is never fully fixed. Through the interplay of line, light and shadow, the image shifts with perspective and atmosphere. At certain moments, the subject seems to step forward out of the black. At others, it settles back into stillness. It is within that movement, between sharpness and calm, that the work comes alive. Like all materials touched by time, the surface carries its own quiet life. Each scratch holds a moment, a breath, a gesture. Together they form not just an image, but a presence, one that continues to reveal itself with every change of light. About the Artist My name is Tijs Dragtsma, founder of TD Fine Art Studio. As an artist, I am driven by a constant desire to explore new visual languages. I do not see art as a fixed style, but as an evolving field of discovery where material, structure, light and emotion come together. My work often begins with a simple question. How can a material speak in a new way. How can hardness become intimacy. How can precision create emotion. That search lies at the heart of everything I create. Within TD Fine Art Studio, each body of work is approached as its own world, with its own logic, atmosphere and visual identity. Some works are built through rhythm, repetition and structure. Others emerge through absence, shadow, reflection or tension. What connects them is a shared commitment to originality, clarity and emotional presence. I am fascinated by contrast. Between strength and fragility. Between control and feeling. Between what is visible and what is left open to interpretation. My goal is not simply to make an image, but to create a work that holds attention, invites reflection and continues to reveal itself over time. TD Fine Art Studio is the space in which these explorations come together. It is not only a studio, but an evolving artistic universe shaped by curiosity, precision and the ambition to create work that feels distinctive, intentional and alive. This listing contains AI-generated visualisations. Please refer to the original photographs to assess the actual condition of the object.

Estimate:£2,927.51

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