Onzijn by Marianne Goudswaard

In the Netherlands, eleven is called the “crazy number” because it can only be divided by itself and falls between the perfect number ten and the holy number twelve. Eleven is the odd one out; it represents deviation. In Japan, this concept is described as the elusive beauty of imperfection. On the border between beautiful and ugly, the frayed edges, that’s where images become interesting.

ONZIJN by Marianne Goudswaard is an art collection consisting of photography, drawings, three-dimensional, and digital works, created in series of eleven. Imperfection and vulnerability are central themes. Each piece emerges intuitively, responding to previous works and photographs. Delicate materials such as thin tissue paper, eggshells, leaves, mushrooms, and feathers embody this fragility.

When a tree encounters an obstacle, it doesn’t stop. It grows underneath, around, or over it, always finding its way. My work emerges similarly. I crumple the paper, creating an unpredictable canvas with which I collaborate. From the chaos, patterns bloom—that echo, river deltas, mountain ranges, airflows, the veins of a leaf, the lines in our hands, or tree branching. The language of nature, captured in delicate silk tissue paper.

The process of creating these natural patterns is fun, and relaxing and develops in an organic flow. The goal is to deepen understanding of nature, her patterns and processes —learning from both the natural world and the work that spontaneously emerges within this flow. To have no clear-cut idea in advance creates rest and space, which gives enormous creative freedom.