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Takeover #206 Catelijne Boele




Catelijne Boele: Instagram / Website


#206 (16/05 - 20/05, 2022) written by Esther van Zoelen


What is the essence of a chair? To sit on, to look at, to just stand there, solely being itself. While a chair might seem concrete, for Catelijne these objects among other creations often come from inspiration that sometimes consists of memories, conversations, body language or even dreams. These things come to be inside of herself, a place where she often re-thinks, wonders about, or writes about. It becomes material. She describes her own work with the word ‘atmospheric’, meaning that the vague and volatile is nevertheless caught into different mediums.

She paints, sculpts and writes. The process for all of these art forms is swift and airy, with fleeting streaks that should not be worked on too much. I wonder if that is why her sculptures in particular – which in reality are stronger - often look fragile, something she does not entail intentionally.

“Painting and writing are both volatile in their own ways. They are not as different as I thought beforehand. The process of painting often is volatile as well, I often work with simple and direct paint strokes.”

Catelijne’s newest project emerged from intense dreams she had while having to stay at home due to covid. Visual and subconscious inspiration from dreams is a recurring event for her. They can feel very long and vivid, they bring a certain feeling and atmosphere that she is now capturing in words. Alongside the starting point of dreams, her paintings are an ongoing process. 

The subject of these paintings often is a chair, or multiple chairs. Approximately three years ago they occurred for the first time during her studies at KABK (Sculpture, Fine Arts). They have been absent for some time, but re-appeared when Catelijne wished to paint something truly hers which would make her feel free. The chairs firstly were meant to capture a certain feeling and ascribe that upon them, but now they have become their own character and not just Catelijne’s projection of herself onto them. The paintings and sculptures together in one room supplement each other in that they both aim for the same feeling, but are translations of it into another medium. Catelijne sees the sculptures are also drawn from the inspiration of chairs, but seem to represent them less clearly. Maybe because their 3d figures would be too close to an actual 3d chair, but also because the paintings often come first and the sculptures follow them up and are thus a kind of extract of their visual appearance.

The titles these chairs receive are an important addition to the work. They are sometimes chosen beforehand and used as inspiration and other times will come when the work is finished. For Catelijne it feels as if she is sculpting with words, adding a new layer upon the visible that is sometimes still very open.

“I am curious to see if I will get bored of the chair as a topic. Sometimes I wonder if I can actually paint something else. I should try it, to see what happens. However, for now I am not done with them yet’

As mentioned before, Catelijne’s work looks quite fragile, which the audience clearly is aware of as well. The work Maelstrom contains a floor made out of patches of burlap and plaster and it is heard when one walks onto it. The spectator is aware of every step they take and this way is immersed into the work bodily and directly. Catelijne likes to gently force her audience to look and feel in a certain way, another example is to hang the paintings lower to the floor. Hereby she creates a sort of game of chairs, tables and people changing postures.

The space in which she exhibits is important as well. During her graduation exhibition at KABK she found it important to show her work at the place where she made it. The lines in her paintings correspond with the arches in the ceiling and the radiators also offer an atmospheric element to the manifestation; the room is seen back into the work and vice versa. The history of her work is important for Catelijne. The travel it undergoes is a way in which it receives its own identity.

“It’s nice to have someone there who can say ‘go ahead, if you want to experience it you can definitely walk on it, it is the intention.’ But there is some sort of barricade to make that step. It results in a heightened consciousness about the step you make and that is why I think that hesitation is also valuable.”

During the takeover at Rizoom Catelijne will take us along on her process of steps, thoughts, and making connections. She will share autonomous as well as describing texts and her vision onto new work she is making. Moreover, there will be sources of inspiration – what she is reading, exhibitions and of course dreams – peeks into her making-process and things that happen aside from her paintings and sculptures.



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