You think too much!
- WHO AM I?
When I was little, I was told I think too much. This continued as an adult...thus my art practice Roomforthoughts began in 1998 with one burning question: ‘What is a thought?’ And its associated sub-questions. What does a thought look like? What is the power of thought? How to break through thought programming? How to make a thought stronger? This grew into an eclectic practice that investigates how thoughts construct mental and physical realities of ourselves and of others...but also investigates how to give visualization to a personal inner thought process that influences our (mental)health.
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Under Construction...always...
In my artistic development, I imagined the physics of thought in a given moment, being born from a body, a mind, and then being able to capture them as I could freeze them in time and space. For me, this meant contemplating what they looked like and what they were made of, and arriving at the creation of ‘air drawings’ with fabrics that expressed the physics of these thoughts, focusing, for instance, on what one might consider a harmful thought, a broken thought, or thought program.
I began to look at these ‘materialised thoughts’ as something that one could cut, stitch, weave, and knit together in a complex spatial composition, in which the materialized thoughts could form mental landscapes that might be able to express the thoughts and experiences of others. Much like the simple act of trying on a crown to imagine what it would be like to be a king, I became interested in seeing if I could create experiences as if they were outfits that were analogous to the complexity of another person’s subjective experiences; experiences that a visitor could ‘try on’ as if they were clothing, to understand the experience of someone else.This has sometimes led to collaborative creations that are more complex, in the form of media art installations that form complete worlds in which the visitors may literally become lost. In essence, the works are created to form an experience for a visitor as mind-specific art. Or synaptic art.
You think too much!
All my life I was told I think too much. I wondered why thinking too much was thought to be something negative? This led me to investigate what a thought was.
Use my creative services built around my understanding of thoughts. Contact me for a creative consult, an inspiring sparring session, a fresh perspective, or a heartfelt mind journey.
Artist - Mind Warrior - Imagination Navigator
I studied fashion from 1994 to 1998 before graduating from the fine arts department of the Maastricht Art Academy in 2000. I continued with the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam, which I completed in 2002. I subsequently joined an experimental curating course, an initiative of the University of Amsterdam and the Sandberg Institute.After my studies, I developed a keen interest in understanding how art is a form of knowledge production, in particular in a scientific or social context. I found a home in the field of artistic research. I this I seek to go beyond the traditional function of art translating science to the general public. In this, I also separate art and research, where the knowledge that is produced to benefit the artist and the artwork. I align with knowledge born from artistic activities, in which the art is subordinate to the knowledge. Touching upon the field of 'knowing without knowing' with measurable economic and or social impact.I was an artistic researcher-in-residence at the National Psychiatry Museum in Haarlem (5 months), and Waag Society Institute for Art, Science, and Technology, Amsterdam (2 years). I was the tutor of the Honours Programme ART and RESEARCH of the University of Amsterdam and the Gerrit Rietveld Academie (+3,5 years). My most renown work is Labyrinth Psychotica, a creative social entrepreneurial project aimed at changing the story of psychosis.
What I learned...(and am still learning..)
I learned that thinking is crucial to growth, to empathy, to connecting with The Other. Yet, I also learned that thinking too much can lead to a disconnect between body and spirit, bringing disarray within one's own inner and outer world. For instance, knowing one's thoughts, but not knowing one's feelings or needs. Through the act of making art that investigates thought, I combine my body, and mind to feed my spirit resulting in 'inklings'. Inklings, to me, represent the birth of change. The change of an idea, the change of behaviour, a movement in one's spirit. I hope for the (lighter or darker) experience of my work to become nested into another' as a (synaptic) object that opens a pathway to the imagination. Imagination being the space where mind, body, and spirit meet and play, and get to know each other.
