Portrait

I am interested in that which I don’t know. In my work there is a complexity that is not foreseeable. I like to call my drawings ‘worlds’, or ‘manifestations’. In a sense, I sculpt my drawings, since I literally move material around; building up a ‘world’ with ink and watercolor and then ‘destroying’ what I just created by cutting through the paper and moving parts around so new unexpected ‘worlds’ start to appear. This appearing and disappearing interest me. It’s like an infinite coming and going, what disappears in this ‘world’ enters again in another. Perhaps nothing is ever really lost and with every thought comes the beginning of a new manifestation.
I am interested in the idea of responsibility; or more precisely, the idea of being responsible for everything that one puts in motion. There is no action that does not have a consequence, although this also means that there is an enormous amount of possibility. I believe there is a ‘fiction’ to the visible manifested world, or what I call a ‘necessary illusion’. I am interested in this illusion because it is a way to practice life as a possibility. Ongoing ever-changing manifestations, however illusionary, nevertheless have a ‘materiality’ depending on how our actions are changed because of them. Such are ideas that conceptually as well as emotionally fuel the decisions and possibilities I confront in my work.”

Nelleke Beltjens

Vita

 
 
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