From 2008 to 2014, Jan Bokma investigated the value and meaning of art and his own art in particular. The research focused on how a work of art made of transient materials could represent higher abstract values. Since 2014, Bokma has focused on abstractions in society. In his sculptures and installations he connects ideals of progress and modernity with their material limitations. His work is strongly connected with the modern sculpture tradition. This is reflected in his preference for rectangular shapes and his fundamental approach to his subjects.
I see life as a collection of processes where one material transforms into another. The idea is that you can see the true face of life if you look at it purely from matter. As an ongoing process of life and death where individuality is of secondary importance. I use the expressive power of materials to emphasize the materiality of objects. Think of gravity to express mass or color and shine of a material to express substance with. The works together form a space, a process.
My starting point is two-fold. On the one hand, the sculptures and installations act from a more philosophical approach to materialism. In this, reality, including emotions and other processes in the human brain, can ultimately be traced to matter. The sculptures are also intended as a criticism of a materialistic society where economic values are dominant. Rectangular shapes represent a far-reaching rationality and function as frameworks for more amorphous and organic forms.