Marijke Loosjes (Perth, Australia): Drowning
- Duration: 7 min
- Watch: 2nd December 2017 at 7am UTC
DESCRIPTION: Exploring various stages of grief, the healing process and the steps which take us forward and the steps that take us back. It becomes a ritualised process in which you can choose to not heal and become stuck in a loop of pain and numbness. Symbols of death hang heavy over head, claws holding a netting that blocks the artist from the viewer, representing a mental blurring and cloudiness from depression, throughout this piece it is seen that there is a comfort and displacement found within this netting. The process of healing is shown through red bandages, red is used for it’s association to injury and pain, the removing of the bandages and clothing show an attempt at healing and at moving forward. Dressed in a silk tulle garment, fabric that is so fragile it rips and falls apart with each performance, commenting on the fragility of one’s mental state and being during these times. The need to stay connected to a lost one means avoiding letting completely go, holding on to the pain therefore the detrimental cycle begins again when the body returns to the netting.
BIO: Marijke Loosjes is a West Australian interdisciplinary artist who works in the mediums of photography, performance and sculpture. Her work engages with themes of abjection and ephemerality, delving into the inner workings of one’s mental state, exploring the line in which abjection and beauty can be blurred. She explores these areas with an honesty that is compelling yet provoking in the same moment. Since graduating Loosjes has exhibited for OnWilliam and Paper Mountain. In 2012 she organised her first group exhibition \’Metamorphosis\’ at Free Range Gallery with 11 other artists. Loosjes had her first solo show \’they speak in tongues unknown\’ in Sydney as apart of the 2012 Head On Photo Festival. In 2013 she completed an artist residency at Palazzo Rinaldi in Noèpoli, South of Italy, this residency produced the installation De Collectie which was exhibited with Fringe World Perth in 2014. She has recently undertaken an artist in residence at NDSM Treehouse in Amsterdam, Netherlands for the month of May, during this month she also worked with Trudy Otterspeer of Ambachetlijk Plateel in Gouda learning the traditional Dutch ceramic technique Delfts Blauw (Delft Blue). Loosjes has sold work to a number of private collectors. Marijke Loosjes was born in Perth and continues to work in Perth, she graduated from Curtin University with a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art in 2011. ARTIST WEBSITE