MUNTHE ART MONDAY: ROZEMARIJN WESTERINK
Please introduce yourself and tell us about what you do.
I’m a visual artist based in The Netherlands. A few years back, I moved from the city Utrecht to a small village next to the woods and the river Rhine. After my graduation at MFA at St. Joost School of Art & Design, I work on drawings on paper and hand-made animation films with analogue equipment.
In my work, I focus on landscape and the female body. Recently I started exploring a more spatial way of working with ceramics and resin.
All my work starts from drawing, as drawing is for me the most honest form of making art. It’s as intimate as it is raw.
Rozemarijn is wearing Lynhaven pants and Chapter blouse.
Can you name some other female (artist) that inspires you and explain why they do so?
The etchings of Louise Bourgeois for their direct way of drawing a line which totally falls together with the expression and content of the work. A perfect combination of vulnerability and strength.
Jenny Holzer for her textual works in public space which are always confronting in exactly the right way and saying everything with nothing.
The graphic works and paintings by Frida Kahlo, for their emotional and narrative value, only saying what is needed, nothing extra or too much. For the existential need of creating image and putting all aspects of life together.
The drawings of Kinke Kooi, for their extreme preciseness and embracing softness and intimacy.
Could you explain more about how being a woman has affected your career?
During the last 10 years I completely focus on the landscape in my work – the garden in particular. The garden because it feels so close and it always surrounds you; the garden of my childhood, the garden I’m having at my house right now, the gardens I see around me, and even the history of gardens is a long and interesting road, also the one in art history. This intimate space let’s say, has an intriguing similarity with the human body. As a woman my body is always close - well-functioning or not, satisfying or not – it’s constantly there, adapting to life and it’s changing circumstances. Just like a garden it’s near you all the time. A few years back I felt the need to insert the female body into my drawn landscapes. As the gardens I draw with pen and ink are extremely layered - sometimes so dense the white paper nearly disappears – the female bodies are drawn in mostly single lines, raw and direct. I consider both the body and the garden as metaphors for an inner space that is tangible, fluid and transient.
Rozemarijn is wearing Lynhaven pants.
What would you like people to notice in your artwork?
I would like people to experience my work as walking into a dream; to be at ease and recognize something familiar, but being a little confused at the same time… I think to have interaction with the other and share a universal moment by seeing a drawing, or have a communal perception of time by a film, is something very vulnarable and beautiful.
What has been the most challenging aspect of being a woman in the arts?
As a mother of three it can be a challenge to keep all things in the air and to find balance within all these different aspects of life. Especially for artists because the job never ends at five and to have children neither. For me it is to embrace life to the full.
Rozemarijn is wearing Lynhaven pants and Chapter blouse.
