With delicate sensitivity, Henrik Moses’s drawing is exceptionally similar to photography; relying on sharp contrasts and vibrant light that casts deep shadows. The excellent range of values impart vitality and lend a fresh air to the artwork. The juxtaposition of materials (with distinct characteristics) ends up highlighting their disparities and become an effective technique when reproducing different textures. The composition is efficient and shows a well-established interest point. Using directional lines like the pencil, the clock hand or the thread which supports the feather functions as an arrow that channels and converges our glace towards the focal point, thus reinforcing its importance. 

Moses plays with the materials of his own subject matter, creating a set of successive illusions. He often draws his own sheet of paper and, upon it, recreates all the action. It is like a drawing within another — which enables the prolongation of fantasy to infinity. He draws paper on paper and, out of nowhere, everything suddenly appears: a wrinkled sheet that serves as a garment for a ballerina on a previous page. A labyrinthine recreation that displays a continuous cycle between the idea, the sketch and the finished drawing. Moses stimulates the spectator’s mind through consecutive optical illusions. He plays tricks on the viewer by drawing vicious circles — the hand that delineates the hand, using shackles and chains, is attached to the drawing itself. 

It bridges three worlds: The drawing — a flat and inanimate world (2D); The faithful reproduction of reality — as three-dimensional representation (a false 3D). And the “supposed reality” — the actual real world we live in, outside of the paper realm (the real 3D). That way, Moses transposes a border that is usually watertight and, in doing so, allows fantasy to approach reality. After all, when he goes beyond the limits of paper, the drawing thus becomes part of our world.



Pedro Boaventura