Jan Cox

1973

Print, 49 x 60 cm.
Materials:

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp / Collection Flemish Community (Inv. no. BK002031).

Just as in Oh! Those Voices, Boston, 1972, with Het volk jubelt [The People Rejoice] Cox attempts to capture daily experiences through flashes of memories and feelings. Cox often combines experiences with Biblical stories and ancient myths, whereby they surpass the anecdotal and the purely subjective. These are obsessional themes, where drink-induced visions alternate with manifestations of death and doom. The etching Het volk jubelt [The People Rejoice] is part of a series devoted to the story of Judith and Holofernes, a tragic tale about love and death where, just as with Orpheus and Eurydice, just as with the Iliad, woman is cause of conflict and calamity. Using this Biblical story, Cox evokes his relational problems with the opposite sex, while at the same time de-subjectivizing the theme. Beneath the mythic soil bubbles Cox's own narrative: "The basic idea here [of Judith and Holofernes] is that every woman has the potential to be a Judith. Here I don't mean anything negative. I'm just basing myself on my own experience and what I've seen around me. The woman that can seduce, can also kill."