What goes up, 2012

‘What Goes Up’ by Sylvie Zijlmans (1964, the Netherlands) triggers the response ‘must come down,’ thereby completing the saying from which the title of this work seemingly derives. The image accompanying this title is decidedly puzzling. Zijlmans’ meticulously staged photograph depicts an interior in which vertical streams of pink paint splash into (or maybe out of) a series of buckets and flowerpots arranged on the floor, calling to mind a ceiling that has sprung a serious leak. Yet the ceiling remains invisible due to Zijlmans’ technique of cropping thus hindering an unambiguous reading of the depicted scene. With this playful and enigmatic work, Zijlmans has constructed a world much like the one we live in: colorful, intriguing and often frankly confusing.