Marrigje de Maar (Netherlands) The Emperor’s Wardrobe
Space Preference: Museum or Commercial Gallery, University Art Space or Non-profit Art Space
To contact this artist, please contact FotoFest: 713.223.5522 ext 18
Artist Statement
I went to Art School at the age of 54 and graduated in 2004. I studied both painting and sculpture. Only in the end to find out that the best form in which to materialize my work was through photography. I found ‘my medium’ in 2002 after a 3 week master class with Lynne Cohen at the Summer University in Salzburg, Austria.
The series of private spaces were started in 2003 during a student exchange in Eastern Finland. The plan had been to find more abandoned spaces, but while I was there my mood changed completely. I felt it very hard to capture this feeling of neglect and rejection. So I decided to turn the project upside down. I started to take the interiors of private spaces.
I have held a life-long fascination for private spaces. For me a private space is the embodiment of home - the feeling of warmth and safety. A small cosmos of experiences and feelings, colour and light. It is this intimacy that I am trying to capture. Although I do not focus on any particular household object, they do give my pictures enhanced – and enchanted – significance.
In 2005 I got a large grant from the Dutch Foundation for the Visual Arts and I could make a trip to China. For almost 4 month I stayed, both in Beijing and in two villages in the country side. The Chinese serie has got the name “The Emperor’s Wardrobe”
All these pictures are telling stories. Stories about how people house themselves – often under not so easy circumstances. How they shape their homes into their private space. A place to be themselves and a place for daydreaming. About the lives they would like to live and the persons they would like to be. Some spaces seem to fit their occupants completely. Independent of customs and habits the place looks like it is built around its inmates. A safe haven – a sanctuary – solely suited to them.
Although many of my pictures are taken in humble houses, they are not about the aesthetics of exotic places or of the appalling life of the poor. For me the modest interiors are often more personal, then the afluent. Things hanging on the wall – a poster or some family pictures, or perhaps an old teapot or vase in a cupboard – they are there to please the owner not to impress the visitor. They are kept because they are reminders of a beloved person or a happy occasion, not to show wealth or status. A chair is still a useful chair even when the paint has chipped off or a leg has been repaired. Colours are faded by time and many years of sturdy use. They tell a story of their own.
As in the case of the abandoned spaces my personal feelings of esteem and honour for both the people and the place is reflected in my work.When I take my pictures I never make any changes. I do not move, add or remove anything. To shape my image I only use the available light.
Underneath the story of these spaces there is another story. The story of my sanctuary! This place is not an existing structure - a cabin on the moors or a loft, high up in a skyscraper? My space materializes in my imagination only. The pictures serve as building material. Each new project adding more memories and feelings, deepening the shades of colour and light.
In October-November 2006 I will be in Japan. I am warned that it is very unlikely that I will be allowed inside in Japanese private homes.
The proof of the pudding will be the eating. Let us hope the taste will be as sweet as that of the others.
Captions
Marrigje de Maar, Beijing, Aquarium, 2005, Kodak Lambda Print, 50x40cm
Marrigje de Maar, Beijing, Angel, 2005, Kodak Lambda Print, 50x40cm
Marrigje de Maar, Beijing, Entrance, 2005, Kodak Lambda Print, 50x40cm
Marrigje de Maar, Beijing, Greengrocers’, 2005, Kodak Lambda Print, 50x40cm
Marrigje de Maar, Beijing, Karaoke, 2005, Kodak Lambda Print, 50x40cm
Marrigje de Maar, Beijing, The Cupboard, 2005, Kodak Lambda Print, 50x40cm
