The starting point of Vicks on Stainless Steel is an American handbook from World War II for the care of wounded soldiers. A disk divided into pie slices, containing instructions for first aid, one for each body part.
Job Koelewijn enlarged the diagram into a disc of about two meters in diameter with text and drawings made from green Vicks ointment. This is typically Koelewijn, if only because the latter. The fresh-smelling ointment does not only serve as an immediate sensory experience, it also refers to the beneficial effects of art. The fact that it as a medium is volatile and unstable only helps emphasize this suggestion. The artwork itself changes over time. And thus lives!
If looking at the images on the disc, the circle of meaning is beautifully rounded. What we see is how the human body, disassembled by the violence of war, is put back together again.This refers not to an individual, but to our humanity as a whole. The circle in which all this is captured adds the spiritual dimension of a cosmic harmony that encompasses all life. The healed man is he who has restored his connection with our origins.