Like a dancer expressing emotion through movement or a sculptor capturing presence with one pose perpetually still, I like to use the body as a tool for direct expression. Amidst mountains, fields and in my studio I dance with landscape and materials to explore our emotional and physical relationship to the earth and to each other.
Central to my way of working is an iterative use of drawing, performative gesture, (digital) collage and photographic registration. The encounters between body and other are purposefully multi-layered and often hold ambiguities or contradictions. Are we witnessing inner strength or turmoil? Lightness or a burden? Silence or shout? Rather than resolving these paradoxes, I am intrigued by their juxtaposition, stretching the space of possibility and meaning.
Choreographies of Care (2023) – Act 1 - After predominantly working in black and white for two years, I started to include locally sourced river clay and pastel crayons into my wall drawings. The purposeful amplification of color in this latest series of performative drawings coincides with the emergence of a new theme in my work around the dynamics of care and resistance. The image above is part of the 'first Act' of this new line of artistic inquiry and expression.
Warm Mountain (2023) 60 x 90cm Giclée print on Dibond - This work is part of series of pictures in which body and hair enter into sculptural dialogues with collapsed drawings. Hair becomes continuous with the expressive strokes of charcoal and clay still wet, while the body withdraws and emerges from this unlikely warm mountain and all it evokes.
Amidst (2023) – 50 x 70 cm Giclée print on Hahnemühle paper, mounted on Dibond. - This work is part of my first series of performative drawings called Amidst (2023). These works stems from an urge to enter into a physical relation with large scale expressive drawings. The performative element adds a layer of embodied expression to the process of creating the work. Building on earlier themes in which I explore our emotional and physical relation to nature and to each other, this series of drawings ellaborates on what it means to stand in relation to external turmoil. We are part of it, and at times we might feel that we taken over by it, but we might as well dance with it!
Amidst (2023) Exhibition edition 140 x 200 cm in stand-alone photo backdrop frame - For the exhibition Here Be Dragons in Amsterdam I made a life size installation using this photograph. Hung in a stand-alone photo-backdrop frame, it had a prominent place the raw and open exhibition space of Werkpaard, drawing visitors in and inviting interaction in response to the life-size presence of this figure in whirlwind.
Earthling Entangled (2022), 118 x 84 cm, charcoal, pencil & photo print on paper. - This work was part of my 2023 solo exhibition 'Our Roots are Dark'. The exhibit showcased a collection of large drawings in which the boundaries between charcoal, pencil, body and landscape have been blurred. In the encounter with what is drawn and with landscape, the body takes on a new appearance as 'Earthling': an earthly protest creature, imbued with nature, full of emotion, powerful and rebellious.
Earthling gatherer, 2022, 118 x 84 cm, charcoal, pencil & photo print on paper - Part of the series and solo exhibition Our Roots Are Dark (2023).
Presence series – 2022 – 70 x 100 cm – Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag - Exploring the boundaries between drawing and embodied presence: photographs of drawings, collages and nature entangle with introverted poses and gestures. Although the physical presence of the body was an important part of creating the work, it takes on a different quality in the resulting images. The body is imbued with something other, not situated in any particular place and time.
Video stills from site specific performative sculpture that features in the collaborative philosophical video essay ‘If The Truth Was A Witch…’ (23min) | 2022 Original live performance 30 min | - The video essay is a joint production of philosopher Tim de Mey, author Annelies Verbeke, cellist and composer Saartje van Camp, myself and filmmaker Stefan de Graaff. For this project I was commissioned by the International School of Philosophy to create an artwork that would feature in the video. In edition to the performative sculpture, Saartje van Camp and I worked together to create the closing theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZo5PUuHsUY&t=5s
Treedance (2023) Giclée print on Hahnemühle paper mounted on dibond, 77 x 110 cm, 1/7 + 2 AP - Part of the Land(e)scape Series. Amidst mountains, fields and forests I search for interactions between body, landscape and material. On the spot, but also at later times, when I continue to work on an image in my studio. What intrigues me is to evoke an intimate connection between interior and exterior presence.
