Tijs Dragtsma (1992) - Void. Ivory Labyrinth

Ivory Labyrinth begins with a single cut. A head of cabbage, halved through its center, opens like a book, and inside, leaf folds into leaf until the pattern no longer reads as vegetable at all, but as fingerprint, as shell, as a map of somewhere unnamed.

There is a quiet paradox held in that form. The outer leaves are rough, weathered, standing guard, while the heart draws inward through narrowing spirals, as if privacy itself had taken shape. Every labyrinth asks to be walked before it can be understood, and this one asks only to be looked at closely, more than once.

Nothing here is added. The ridges and whorls that seem carved from within are built the way every work in this series is built, through depth and its absence rather than through addition. No paint. No print. No ink.

From a distance the piece settles into stillness, a pale form closed against the dark, monumental and silent. Come closer and it opens, the same surface becoming a field of shifting depth, catching and releasing light with every step, every hour, every angle of the room.

The cabbage, humble and overlooked, becomes here an architecture of concentric passages, echoing the same spiral logic found in shells, in fingerprints, in the rings that mark a tree's years. A small thing made monumental, quietly asking what else we pass by without seeing.

Ivory Labyrinth continues the Art with Void series by Tijs Dragtsma, in which imagery is constructed through depth and absence rather than paint or print. A visual language where absence is not emptiness, but presence. This work is unique.

"Some labyrinths lead outward. This one leads only in."

About Art with Void

Art with Void is a body of work in which the image is not built through addition. but revealed through absence.

From a distance. the image is unmistakable. Strong. clear and immediately present. Yet up close. the work transforms. The viewer discovers a surface composed of precisely carved micro voids in high quality acrylic glass. What seemed whole and still from afar becomes detailed. delicate and deeply structured.

Light is essential to the work. In daylight. reflections shift and the image changes subtly with its environment. In darkness. under a focused spotlight. the acrylic glass comes fully alive. Depth intensifies. reflections sharpen. and the image takes on an almost magical presence.

This interplay between distance and proximity. image and structure. stillness and transformation lies at the heart of Art with Void. It is a visual language built on reduction. yet rich in atmosphere. precision and presence.

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.