00h00PortfolioCET
REFERENCE
Paintings on canvas with acrylic markers.
‘REFERENCE’ is my first series which I began in 2015. The title itself reflects the method central to the creation of these works. Each piece is created on a heavily grained canvas, with its visible structure serving as both a guide and a point of reference for my process. Using a black acrylic marker, I draw lines freehand that follow the canvas's natural texture until the surface is completely covered. This process - repeating the work of a machine through deliberate, manual execution - creates a balance between precision and imperfection. While each line is aligned with the canvas's structure, subtle variations makes them all unique. The act of following this predetermined path results in visuals that are both rhythmic and hypnotic.
DIGITAL
MUTATION
Pictures from the series ‘REFERENCE’.
The monochrome paintings from the series ‘REFERENCE’ reflect color moiré patterns when being photographed. Color moiré are artifacts in photography. It is an interference pattern that happens when the frequency of the detail in an image exceeds the frequency of the camera sensor’s pixel pitch. It is by definition, the inability of a digital camera to resolve real information. With this phenomena, I mutated my paintings into uniquely colored digital versions. ‘DIGITAL MUTATION’ displays the differences between the physical paintings and their pictures to question digital content.
VIRAL
Video collages composed of viral COVID-19 memes.
During the 2020 pandemic, Memes about COVID-19 circulated rapidly across the internet, becoming both coping mechanisms and reflections of collective anxiety. During the curfew, I collected and categorized this digital content by country of origin and publication date. I then assembled these materials into a series of videos, each representing a different nation. Played in chronological order, the videos trace the global spread of these digital artifacts, producing a layered, chaotic soundscape—a “spreading noise” that mirrors the contagion of fear and uncertainty that defined the pandemic. Despite their humorous surface, the works reveal an underlying tension between humor and panic, connection and isolation.
Digital
Postcards
GIFS of digital portrait drawings.
This project also emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the midst of isolation, I began painting portraits in acrylic on plain paper postcards—an ode to social interaction and physical connection. Over time, I transitioned to creating these portraits digitally while preserving the postcard format, a medium now largely overshadowed by technology. As the series evolved, I began overlaying multiple portraits onto single cards. Some combinations formed coherent, almost unified faces—as if the figures were in total agreement—while others dissolved into abstract, fragmented visages, suggesting dissonance and disconnection. The final work takes the form of a three-dimensionally spinning digital postcard GIF, reflecting on how human connection and communication continually shift between clarity and distortion in an increasingly digital world.
INTERFERENCE:
Interactive artworks producing visual illusions.
Across previous bodies of work, I have navigated through multiple mediums and formats. While experimenting with drawing, photography and video I kept a consistent interest in blur, glitch, and indeterminate visual states. These elements point toward moments where perception becomes unstable and meaning slips between defined forms. INTERFERENCE takes shape as a hybrid between painting and sculpture incorporating an interactive dimension that directly references digital tools and optical phenomena. Throughout my research, illusion repeatedly emerged as a central concern. The moiré effect, in particular, became a precise visual metaphor for the confusion, overlap, and disruption present in my critical thinking. I encountered a textile material capable of producing a strong moiré pattern when layered, and immediately recognized a visual and conceptual parallel with the line-based surfaces of my series REFERENCE. This resonance became the foundation for developing the new body of work. In REFERENCE, I used the structure of the canvas and its grid-like weave as a mechanical guide, allowing me to draw freehand in a repetitive, almost hypnotic process that mimicked the logic of a machine. With INTERFERENCE, I wanted to transfer that experience from the artist to the viewer. Rather than observing the result of a process, the audience is invited to activate it themselves. To achieve this, I constructed simple mechanical devices from cardboard—an industrial material often perceived as low-value—that generate moiré effects through movement. These objects take the form of sculptural devices reminiscent of televisions or screens, positioning them at the intersection of analog and digital references. When activated, the works allow viewers to produce their own optical illusions through a playful, tactile interaction with a rudimentary machine. INTERFERENCE continues my exploration of repetition, structure, and perception, while shifting the focus from manual execution to participatory experience. The series questions authorship, control, and the role of the machine, inviting viewers into a space where vision becomes unstable and illusion is collectively produced.
Identity Crisis
A series of self portraits
I am an Artist.
I have no interest in Art.
I don’t like Art.
I am an Artist but I have another job.
I am not an Artist, I just love making art.
I love Art. It’s all I wanna do.
I am an Artist.
I have not been selected for exhibitions.
I am not an Artist.
I am living in an illusion.
Sounds difficult to be an Artist.
info.
- Name:
- Charles-Edouard Thys
- Date of Birth:
- 29/04/1992
- Sex:
- Masculine
- Height:
- 180 cm
- Eyes:
- Brown
- Ethnicity:
- White
- Nationality:
- Belgian
- Email:
- admin@server000.net
- Website:
- www.00h00CET.com
- Instagram:
- @servedbythegram
- Studio:
- Am Spreebord 9, 10553 Berlin