In my visual practice I am searching for encounters with the presence of absence. To cope with this desire to meet the strange, I created a methodology beyond words. The visual practice starts with the ritualistic act of rhythmic lines drawn by the tip of a fineliner. These fine lines transform themselves in extended visual language working with embroidery, woodcarving, stone carving, painting and performance. In my artistic practice, I use the ritual too as a trauma release. In my associative methodology of drawing, my process of grief gets a voice. This drawing voice is not only relatable for me, the viewer can relate in their own perspective through visualizing images related to death, as for example using skeleton parts in the artworks. These skeletons are inspired by the ‘Dance Macabre’ of the painter and printmaker, Hans Hoblein the younger (1497-1553). In the print series, the moving skeletons and carcasses symbolizes the equality of every human life in which death doesn’t make a distinction between being high or low class.
In my unconscious mind, collective myths get mixed up with imaginary landscapes which transform themselves into drawn human bodies with visible bone structures, organs, and non-human entities. These friendly monsters come into the world as artworks raising questions relating to human’s tendency to ‘other’ the unknown. What do I mean when I refer to the term ‘monster’? Better re-define this question as: What power structures preserve the term monster as ‘other’?
In my artworks I am searching for ambiguity, in which boundaries, especially terms as ‘life’ and ‘death’, are blurred. The entities, in my drawings, have human characters. The observer relates themselves to the estranged creature. When I was exhibiting my drawings at the Limburg Bienal in Marres, Sandra Mackus wrote a review about my drawing. In the text she described the figure in terms of ‘harpy, skeletons, death and decay. And while the subjects are cruel, the materiality of the pencil fine liner gives the creatures a soft ambiance. They don’t want to harm you, there seems to be a melancholic state in the faces of the beings.’
INTERNAL ENCOUNTERS at Quartier (2024)
Quartier - The Hague
Material: fabric, soapstone, pencil pen, foam, papersheets, color pencil, wood, thread
In the exhibition of Bad Objects at Quartier, Ghazale Moqaniki, one of the organizers, asked for a moment of silence. The visitors were asked to surround around my round red fabric with the 8 small empty blue cushions. As the public gathered around the artwork, I entered barefoot. One by one, I placed 8 small soapstone sculptures on the blue cushions. After the sculptures were all in the installation, I gave them to the public. They held the sculptures for 3 minutes, while I layed on my red foam installation. First one minute, eyes closed, thanfor the remaining time gazing without pupils. After I focused on my own drawing, I looked up again. Standing up, I retrieved the soap stone sculptures from the public with the same rhythm in which I gave them. In the end, the sculptures were carried out of the installation, and never returned to the exhibition.
After the performance, I asked the audience: ‘If you put your shoes off, you can lay on the foam bed and watch the drawing at the ceiling.’
Photo credit: Django van de Ardenne