The Netherlands
MFA Painting
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Margriet van Weenen
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Margriet van Weenen
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Margriet van Weenen
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Margriet van Weenen
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Margriet van Weenen
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Margriet van Weenen
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Margriet van Weenen
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Margriet van Weenen
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Margriet van Weenen
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Margriet van Weenen
Artist
Margriet van Weenen
1983, The Netherlands
BA Photography, Academy Minerva, Groningen, 2006
mail margrietvanweenen@gmail.com
web margrietvanweenen.wordpress.com
1983, The Netherlands
BA Photography, Academy Minerva, Groningen, 2006
mail margrietvanweenen@gmail.com
web margrietvanweenen.wordpress.com
Statement
A day in my studio
In my studio is a table. It is a rather long, narrow table. The wood is dark brown. I look at the object. The appearance of the table makes me yearn to split it in two. It is too long, it seems to feel uncomfortable. It is almost as if the table is asking me to do this. As I walk around the table, I ask myself how I could do this. Which actions should I carry out to realize this split.
I pick up my folding ruler. I lay it on the table and measure the dimensions of the table. With a pencil, I draw a line along a spirit level. Then I decide that this is not quite right. A division does not lie carefully measured out in the middle. A division does not arise out of rationality but out of an emotion. I walk toward my toolbox. I choose a number of tools. Let me introduce them to you: axe, hammer, drill, saw, jigsaw. I decide to saw the table in half. I connect the jigsaw to the power supply and apply the saw to the tabletop; I cannot get through It begins to go squint. I have no control over this saw. I pick up my trusty handsaw and begin to saw. That doesn't work well either.
I walk around the studio. (I almost feel like Bruce Nauman.) I am forced by my arranged works to move around the edge of my studio and always have to make a complete lap. I can no longer squeeze in between. It is as if I am walking over a line that has been laid out by myself. I complete the lap and come back to my toolbox. In the meantime, I have decided that it is not only a division but a division caused by aggression. My eye falls on the axe but an axe cannot be used just like that. This action is always linked to music. In fact, all actions are linked with music. I go to my computer, two steps away from my toolbox, and stretch my arm out toward the mouse. I scroll though my music list, in my thoughts I recite the abc.
I stop at Rammstein. I click and I soon hear the text We are all living in America, appropriate to the news of the day. With the axe in my hand I stand in front of the table and with a firm movement I apply the axe to the wood, diagonally in the previously sawn groove. The wood splits and an enormous crack arises that finally makes the division visible.
Mission completed,
I think as I put down the axe and go to my computer. And the soft melancholy sounds of Michael Andrews' Mad World sound through my studio.
In my studio is a table. It is a rather long, narrow table. The wood is dark brown. I look at the object. The appearance of the table makes me yearn to split it in two. It is too long, it seems to feel uncomfortable. It is almost as if the table is asking me to do this. As I walk around the table, I ask myself how I could do this. Which actions should I carry out to realize this split.
I pick up my folding ruler. I lay it on the table and measure the dimensions of the table. With a pencil, I draw a line along a spirit level. Then I decide that this is not quite right. A division does not lie carefully measured out in the middle. A division does not arise out of rationality but out of an emotion. I walk toward my toolbox. I choose a number of tools. Let me introduce them to you: axe, hammer, drill, saw, jigsaw. I decide to saw the table in half. I connect the jigsaw to the power supply and apply the saw to the tabletop; I cannot get through It begins to go squint. I have no control over this saw. I pick up my trusty handsaw and begin to saw. That doesn't work well either.
I walk around the studio. (I almost feel like Bruce Nauman.) I am forced by my arranged works to move around the edge of my studio and always have to make a complete lap. I can no longer squeeze in between. It is as if I am walking over a line that has been laid out by myself. I complete the lap and come back to my toolbox. In the meantime, I have decided that it is not only a division but a division caused by aggression. My eye falls on the axe but an axe cannot be used just like that. This action is always linked to music. In fact, all actions are linked with music. I go to my computer, two steps away from my toolbox, and stretch my arm out toward the mouse. I scroll though my music list, in my thoughts I recite the abc.
I stop at Rammstein. I click and I soon hear the text We are all living in America, appropriate to the news of the day. With the axe in my hand I stand in front of the table and with a firm movement I apply the axe to the wood, diagonally in the previously sawn groove. The wood splits and an enormous crack arises that finally makes the division visible.
Mission completed,
I think as I put down the axe and go to my computer. And the soft melancholy sounds of Michael Andrews' Mad World sound through my studio.
Q&A
What is the very first thing you do when you walk into your studio each day?
I drink coffee. 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?)
Well.... I try to understand something about something... hmm .. that sounds really vague, but.... How to consume art?
Just look! What function has (had) writing (the thesis) in your artistic process?
I have written everything I think in my thesis. As a result I was free of thought during the making and I only had to produce. 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?
I cannot answer this question. I think that everyone has developed himself or herself in a certain way which is perhaps not always clear within the boundaries of the Institute, but will become visible in the coming exhibitions. Ask again in ten years.
I drink coffee. 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?)
Well.... I try to understand something about something... hmm .. that sounds really vague, but.... How to consume art?
Just look! What function has (had) writing (the thesis) in your artistic process?
I have written everything I think in my thesis. As a result I was free of thought during the making and I only had to produce. 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?
I cannot answer this question. I think that everyone has developed himself or herself in a certain way which is perhaps not always clear within the boundaries of the Institute, but will become visible in the coming exhibitions. Ask again in ten years.