Gallery Entry
Borrowed Eternity
By Tom Vermeulen · BE
Borrowed Eternity This artwork explores the quiet struggle between the life we have lived, the dreams we have yet to fulfil, and the future we cannot see. A solitary man stands surrounded by the weight of his own existence. Beneath him lies the past — memories, choices, missed opportunities, and moments that can never be recovered. They remain part of him, even as time continues to move forward. Yet his greatest burden is not only what lies behind him. It is also everything that has not happened. The ambitions he once believed he would have achieved by now. The dreams that remain unfinished. The person he imagined he would become, and the distance he still feels between that person and himself. Beyond him, the future offers no clear answers. There is no certainty that his goals will be reached, no visible path promising that everything will eventually fall into place. He stands between what can no longer be changed and what has not yet been written. But the artwork is not simply about regret or despair. It is about the deeply human experience of continuing forward without knowing where life will lead. Perhaps the greatest weight we carry is not the past itself, but the uncertainty of whether there is still enough time to become who we hoped to be.