It`s been a while since my last words on this blog. The times did not invite me to write. More so to experience. But now these times are over and it is time to `do`. It is scary, like the blank canvas syndrome. The empty space syndrome... `empty` is quite the word these days. Empty space,.empty nest. The second bird in my nest has flown out, only one left in there. This is quite something. I don`t know what to make of it yet beyond emptiness.
Looking back at my work from the previous year, I can only say that I must have been preparing myself for this. Sculptures with some sort of woman carrying some sort of child with some sort of shield to protect, kept coming back. Most of them I threw out or dismantled. I consider them sketches. Some of them I consider `a piece`.
Zij die er altijd is (she who is always there) is a piece. Let me give you a little bit of context. As a young girl I was (still am) an admirer of the Belgian sculptor/painter Rik Wouters. The delicate power of this sculptures. How he portrayed his wife over and over. The intimacy he creates in his work. How I wanted to be in his work....especially in his `zotte geweld`, the lifting herself in one movement almost entirely off the ground, Isadora Duncan.
The work `zij die er altijd is` is inspired on one of Wouter`s sculptures called `huiselijke zorgen`, a piece that I rediscovered here in Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, unfortunately sadly tucked away in a staircase hall ;-(. The work came to life at the beginning of this year, in the midst of the terrorism turmoil in Europe and is an expression of the need to protect the ones I love against the craziness of the world. `. An ode to the silent homemaker,she who is there when you are not , waiting for you to come home, hoping you wil be safe at all times. .
x
