As an artist I am an observer. In my work I center on observing, registering, and questioning the representation of the ‘other’, including the other in myself. The other remains a construction, a desire and impossibility to know and possess. Absent and yet sometimes more present than ourselves. Someone to try to understand, imitate, admire, love, relate and interact with on an equal basis, knowing it can never be fully.
I am working on (post)colonial questions and decolonisation, and post-colonial feminism and female representation. Gender fluidity is also a subject that I’m very busy with. This is very connected to decolonisation of the male supremacy and the male vs. female principle of Creation.
Because explanations are given with my installations and film projects, I will go into more detail about my paintings here.
My paintings are composed to result, from their own logic, in an interlaced image of a new reality. An allegory or a dream scenario, a line of thought, a polyphony. This narrative can be a recognizable mirror in the present time, but also an attempt to touch the human condition. My composed reality is a deconstruction of dominant narratives, a reply, a commentary. In this way I also construct a(n) (un)truth and I fictionalize shared, possibly ‘objectively’ perceived realities.
The images I use come from a personal archive of public images, on the one hand from the media, which have either been ‘waiting’ for a long time or ‘blown by’ at the moment itself from current events. And on the other hand from (art) history and mysticism, with a preference for the Middle Ages and primeval religions. In addition, there are personal images, from family photos, nature photos, personal experiences, dream images and invented images.
In recent years, Saint Wilgefortis, the bearded and crucified saint, venerated from the 13th to the beginning of the 20th century, has taken a special place. She was erased from our collective memory after she was excommunicated by the church. Yet she was the patron saint for family problems and abused women. A feminist icon who already broke through gender roles at that time. Her attitude and protest inspired me to look at rebellious women and the female representation in our current times, and her history brought me to the primeval or bird goddess and the rotation of the feminine to the masculine god principle.
In relation to this, there are my ‘flying dreams’ that are very important for my latest paintings. For some time now I have been delving into the symbolic meaning of this. Some flying figures were ‘painted’ with brick powder, which created a contrast between that earthly material, very subject to gravity, and the desire to escape that materiality, to become light. In other ink drawings a flying woman is taken along by a flying raven, a dark patch.
In addition to these two important ‘inspirations’, several human actions – anthropological, psychological, political – play an important role. Important ingredients are hands and feet. Many people together. The house. Birds such as the buzzard, the robin and the raven. Other animals such as the bull and the pig. …
My works are not light-hearted, they evoke pain, or are ominous underneath. At the same time, they show a certain absurdity and express a desire for supreme love. Redemption.
My Inspirations:
Solo exhibitions (selection)
2020 – 2022 Enough Room for Space, Drogenbos, Brussels (B)
2016 CRAAM, Antananarivo (MG)
2015, M HKA INBOX, Antwerp (B)
permanent since
2014, Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Antwerp (B)
2012 M HKA Extra Muros and Collection intervention, Antwerp (B)
2009 Fst-Forward Gallery, Antwerp (B)
1999 deSingel, Antwerp (B)
1998 de Vooruit (VIERNULVIER), Ghent (B)
Group exhibitions (selection)
2023 Kamer vol klei at Museum Albert Van Dijck, Schilde (B)
2022 Performing Objects at CC Strombeek (B)
2021 Festival Other Futures: ‘Spectres from Beyond’ in De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam (NL)
2021 Out of Sight, Antwerp (B)
2020 Beursschouwburg Brussels (B)
2020 St Lucas Gallery, Antwerp (B)
2019 Contour Biennale 2019, Mechelen (B)
2019 MAGASIN des horizons, Grenoble (FR)
2018 Argos, Brussels (B)
2017 Is’Art Gallery, Antananarivo (MG)
2017 MSK, Ghent (B)
2016 Festival ‘Private Tag’, Raversyde, Oostende (B), curator Isabelle De Baets
2015 Festival ‘Prototypes, Duplicates and Cast-offs – Assembly Line Project_2’
in the Systence Electronics Factory and in Fei Contemporary Art Centre M50, Shanghai (CN)
2015 ‘Performing Objects’ in Enough Room for Space, Drogenbos, Brussels (B)
2013 Festival ‘Ici et là – Here and there’ in the Stade Hall and Claremont Studios, Hastings (UK)
2013 Festival ‘Les Grands Magasins’ in La Plate-Forme, Dunkerque (F), as part of Dunkerque Capital of Culture 2013
2012 Lokaal 01, Breda (NL)
2012 Netwerk Aalst (B)
2010 Museum Dr. Guislain, Ghent (B)
2010 Dagmar De Pooter gallery, Antwerp (B)
2009 Festival ‘Front Art – Art Front‘ of the Verbeke Foundation, Kemzeke (B) and Lamswaarde (NL)
1990 Festival ‘Frontiers’ in De Melkweg/De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam (NL)
1989 Festival ‘Metro 89′, Koningin Astridplein, Antwerp (B)
1988 Festival ‘Fabrik 88′, Waalsekaai, Antwerp (B)
Screenings (selection)
2022 ‘(Pas) Mon pays’, KANAL, Brussels (B), Conference ‘Constructed Histories, Conflicted Memories’ for BXL 2030
2022 ‘(Pas) mon pays’, MAS, Antwerp (B)
2021 ‘Ingahy Kama’, Festival Other Futures: ‘Spectres from Beyond’ in De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam (NL)
2020 ‘(Pas) mon pays’ in Film Festivals:
FIF in Belo Horizonte (BR)
FICNC in Cotonou (BJ)
Arica Nativa in (CL)
2020 ‘(Pas) mon pays’, Argos, Brussels (B)
2019 ‘(Pas) mon pays’, Contour Biennale 2019, Mechelen (B)
2019 ‘La couleur de la brique’, Seminário internacional: Os processos participativos e a CERÂMICA, XIV Bienal Internacional de Ceramica Artistica Aveiro (P)
2019 ‘La couleur de la brique’, MAGASIN des horizons, Grenoble (FR)
2018 ‘La couleur de la brique’ en ‘Ingahy Kama’, Argos, Brussels (B)
2017 ‘La couleur de la brique’ in Is’Art Gallery, Antananarivo (MG)
2015 ‘No Words’, Enough Room for Space, Drogenbos, Brussels (B)
2015 ‘His Field’, M HKA (Museum Hedendaagse kunst Antwerpen) INBOX, Antwerp (B)
2015 ‘Not in my head and memory…’, M HKA (Museum Hedendaagse kunst Antwerpen) INBOX, Antwerp (B)
2013 ‘No Words’, Festival ‘Les Grands Magasins’ in La Plate-Forme, Capital of Culture 2013, Dunkerque (F)
2013 ‘Surrouding Water’, Festival ‘Ici et là – Here and there’ in the Stade Hall and Claremont Studios, Hastings (UK)
2012 ‘Time in a gaze/Words about (dis)appearing things’, Lokaal 01, Breda (NL)
2012 ‘TRACINGS’, Lokaal 01, Breda (NL)
2012 ‘TRACINGS’, Netwerk Aalst (B)
2010 ‘Hands’, Oever, Antwerp (B)
2012 ‘TRACINGS, Analogies and dissonances’, M HKA Extra Muros, Antwerp (B)
2009 ‘Not in my head and memory…’, Fst-Forward Gallery, Antwerp (B)
2009 ‘One Day’, Fst-Forward Gallery, Antwerp (B)
Publications
2023 ‘Hands, Eyes, Ceramics’, catalogue of the exhibition ‘Kamer vol klei’, with contributions of Liesbet Waegemans, Lut Pil and Lotte Brown.
2020 ‘Piles of Bricks’, with contributions of anthropologist Rafolo Andrianaivoarivony, historian Gwyn Campbell, curator Hobisoa Raininoro, philosopher Petra Van Brabandt
2016 ‘End to End Raversijde 18.09.16 – 13.11.16 Performing Objects’
2013 ‘brOn’, accompaning the exhibition brOn, an artistic and social-scientific project about water, with my interviews of 4 scientists, Eva Brems, Marleen Temmerman, Rik Pinxten en Peter Schmidt
2013 ‘Dit is evenmin een registratie van een tentoonstelling’, accompaning the exhibition ‘Dit is geen tentoonstelling’ in Lokaal 01
2012 ‘TRACÉS/TRACINGS’ about my project ‘TRACINGS’, with contributions of philosophers Dieter Roelstraete and Christophe Van Eecke, anthropologist Rik Pinxten and psychologist Ellen Reymers