Finding shapes that convey the conception of life, like a cell with its membrane, its transitions and its fragility. That was the initial idea of softbodies some years ago. They grew from a single shape into two, parted or melted into one another. Lines define inner and outer. Fluid gives mass and free flow.
In microscopy one discovers bodies in layers, versions, surfaces become visible or blur into the mass. I felt a need to come closer to that invented body. They became blotchy and hairy, grew from slices to full bodies. The hair builds a fur-like cover and protects, but the hair is an attractor at the same time, tentacles caressing the air, a promise to caress.
Maybe those shapes needed to be given birth. Maybe body and life cannot be separated from sexuality. My intimate understanding can only be that of a woman. Sensuality can only be based on my own experience. I had to mentally open door after door to connect and accept that fragility, to be able then, to translate. The labia-like shapes evoke sensual pleasure and voluptuousness. They stand for the fragile, vulnerable ‘body’, the hidden secret of an identity. The fine hair grows out of those shapes; it is like nerves lying open.
This work somehow seems to build up on my early research on the figure. I had started with paintings of naked female bodies, strong in their way, to express their pleasure and pain. Young women in urban environments discovering life, screaming out their energy. I consider those paintings as some of the purest and most honest in their direct and simple approach. That innocence was certainly lost within the apprenticeship of becoming an artist.
Living in different countries is an enormous, eye-opening and fulfilling experience. It taught me languages in the broadest sense. It taught me seeing and thinking in all kinds of ways. Every place seems to have its own rules and heroes disregarding the unknown. Adaptation is a learning process going from shovelling in of the new
