The Netherlands
MFA Painting
-
Gall Bladder Bear
Larissa van Zanen, 2009
oil on canvas
200 x 280cm -
The Mother Ship
Larissa van Zanen, 2009
oil on canvas
160 x 250cm -
Queen of the House
Larissa van Zanen, 2009
oil on canvas
160 x 250cm -
Two Guardians
Larissa van Zanen, 2008
oil and oilcrayon on canvas
153 x 183cm -
Jesus
Larissa van Zanen, 2008
oil on canvas
83 x 59cm
Artist
Larissa van Zanen
1985, The Netherlands
BA Cabk Artez Artacademy, Zwolle, 2007
mail larissavanzanen@yahoo.com
web www.larissavanzanen.nl
1985, The Netherlands
BA Cabk Artez Artacademy, Zwolle, 2007
mail larissavanzanen@yahoo.com
web www.larissavanzanen.nl
Statement
I complain.
I nag and complain about two worlds around me. The first one is the one of established regularity of daily life, of order and etiquette. This order can be so authoritarian that it gives me a desire to destroy things and break out of them. This happens in my paintings and the second world is embedded in this event, namely, one of demolition. Born out of agitation, complaint and anger, the second world consists of disasters, despair and broken objects. 'The world forgetting, by the world forgot.'* In some fragments of destruction, I recognize and feel comforted. Fortunately it is not always the same. To destroy is easier than to build, but it depends on which fundamental idea. It is more appealing to ruin something that is beautiful and intact, and then to cross the borders and imperfections with the broken pieces of regularity. My interest is situated in the brain's ambiguity, when does the truth appear to be a lie? My way of working and my subjects are intertwined.A form is capricious and changeable, while painting, I try to get through a form, to hold it and let it go again. Flesh-like, tactile objects or forms get destroyed and eliminated. They destruct and endure each other, they suffer under one another's presence or are aroused into resistance.
The paintings combine systematic, sharp surfaces and lines with more complex aspects, which have an explosive character. Both aspects need each other in order to exist in a meaningful connection. In this sense they don't deny their particular appearance. In my work I analyse the interaction between honour, and murder in the name of family honour. The honour of the desperate individual is standing on a pedestal in my paintings. On one hand you idealize the action of painting as a painter, on the other hand you commit murder in the name of family honour, by leaving everything behind that is not placed on the pedestal. Here I am searching for directions that may change the common view on painting, and I desire the unexpected.To become familiar with what is unknown; it is an attempt to rediscover the world the way we used to understand it in deep-rooted experience, which evaporates into smoke. It is this existing before our very eyes that I want to understand and represent again. *) Alexander Pope
I nag and complain about two worlds around me. The first one is the one of established regularity of daily life, of order and etiquette. This order can be so authoritarian that it gives me a desire to destroy things and break out of them. This happens in my paintings and the second world is embedded in this event, namely, one of demolition. Born out of agitation, complaint and anger, the second world consists of disasters, despair and broken objects. 'The world forgetting, by the world forgot.'* In some fragments of destruction, I recognize and feel comforted. Fortunately it is not always the same. To destroy is easier than to build, but it depends on which fundamental idea. It is more appealing to ruin something that is beautiful and intact, and then to cross the borders and imperfections with the broken pieces of regularity. My interest is situated in the brain's ambiguity, when does the truth appear to be a lie? My way of working and my subjects are intertwined.A form is capricious and changeable, while painting, I try to get through a form, to hold it and let it go again. Flesh-like, tactile objects or forms get destroyed and eliminated. They destruct and endure each other, they suffer under one another's presence or are aroused into resistance.
The paintings combine systematic, sharp surfaces and lines with more complex aspects, which have an explosive character. Both aspects need each other in order to exist in a meaningful connection. In this sense they don't deny their particular appearance. In my work I analyse the interaction between honour, and murder in the name of family honour. The honour of the desperate individual is standing on a pedestal in my paintings. On one hand you idealize the action of painting as a painter, on the other hand you commit murder in the name of family honour, by leaving everything behind that is not placed on the pedestal. Here I am searching for directions that may change the common view on painting, and I desire the unexpected.To become familiar with what is unknown; it is an attempt to rediscover the world the way we used to understand it in deep-rooted experience, which evaporates into smoke. It is this existing before our very eyes that I want to understand and represent again. *) Alexander Pope
Q&A
What is the very first thing you do when you walk into your studio each day?
I switch on my computer and listen to music, check my email, and think about what I am going to do that day. I play the piano and then I start work. What is your drive for making art? (Is it a need? Does it help you think? Is it for yourself? Are you trying to tell someone else something? To whom?)
I paint because I want to have power. My paintings are a tragedy and I complain. I complain about authority and the system, I want to break things. I cannot imagine my life without painting. How to consume art?
Start by looking at it. Become engulfed by it. Laugh till you cry and live till you die. What function has (had) writing (the thesis) in your artistic process?
At the moment I am writing the Thesis, I experience it primarily as a distraction from my painting. Later I can put it into perspective, and can consequently reflect on my paintings. Then it actually works supportively and painting and writing become a whole. Which one of your fellow graduating students has in your opinion experienced the most remarkable development during his/her stay at the Frank Mohr Institute, and why?
Ron Amir. He came as a drawer to the Frank Mohr Institute, and in a short period of time, he has showed us different ways to paint; atmosphere, ambiguous scenes and concealed, strange worlds. He waits until something that he is observing reveals itself, he observes his prey until it will be sacrificed. Ultimately, he has been able to show equivalent qualities in his new paintings as we have seen in his drawings. The hand of the drawer has changed into the hand of the painter. You must be brave and fight for this, and that is what he certainly did. He works extremely hard and is critical about himself. He shows us paintings now, like nobody did before.
I switch on my computer and listen to music, check my email, and think about what I am going to do that day. I play the piano and then I start work. What is your drive for making art? (Is it a need? Does it help you think? Is it for yourself? Are you trying to tell someone else something? To whom?)
I paint because I want to have power. My paintings are a tragedy and I complain. I complain about authority and the system, I want to break things. I cannot imagine my life without painting. How to consume art?
Start by looking at it. Become engulfed by it. Laugh till you cry and live till you die. What function has (had) writing (the thesis) in your artistic process?
At the moment I am writing the Thesis, I experience it primarily as a distraction from my painting. Later I can put it into perspective, and can consequently reflect on my paintings. Then it actually works supportively and painting and writing become a whole. Which one of your fellow graduating students has in your opinion experienced the most remarkable development during his/her stay at the Frank Mohr Institute, and why?
Ron Amir. He came as a drawer to the Frank Mohr Institute, and in a short period of time, he has showed us different ways to paint; atmosphere, ambiguous scenes and concealed, strange worlds. He waits until something that he is observing reveals itself, he observes his prey until it will be sacrificed. Ultimately, he has been able to show equivalent qualities in his new paintings as we have seen in his drawings. The hand of the drawer has changed into the hand of the painter. You must be brave and fight for this, and that is what he certainly did. He works extremely hard and is critical about himself. He shows us paintings now, like nobody did before.