Michael Tedja

2018

Artist Novel, 21.5 x 14 cm, 320 p., language : Dutch, publisher : Uitgeverij IJzer , ISBN : 978-90-8684-166-0.
Materials: ink, paper

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. B 2029/576).

Literary Synopsis

Briljante Man (Brilliant Man) is a novel about racism, art, authorship, and social chaos. All these themes are approached in an experimental style – which is associative, like a long stream or consciousness.

Relation of the novel to the artist’s practice

Between July–October 2018, Centraal Museum in Utrecht displayed a series of large-scale drawings created by Michael Tedja in parallel with the writing of his novel Briljante Man (Brilliant Man). The centrepiece of the exhibition Michael Tedja: Hypersubjective is an overwhelming installation consisting of one hundred and thirty-four large drawings. In this installation, Tedja investigates the potential of his own visual language on paper. The series of drawings can be compared to chapters of a book. In each chapter, Tedja chooses a new starting point and imposes certain limitations, thereby repeatedly compelling a search for new solutions within each new series. The result is a highly varied visual language. Abstract, figurative, minimalist or instead extremely colourful and richly chequered series of drawings alternate with each other. Previous works by Tedja have also featured this vivid alternation between abstract and figurative visual language.

The original, hand-written manuscript of Briljante Man was displayed as part of the exhibition.

Novel's website