Solo Hands Hands Head Feet

What remains of a place, what is the history of an image, and in what context does it find itself now? The echo of an idea and the transience of an image make Marije Gertenbach (1990) interested in old paintings, buildings, and spaces.

During her studies at the Rijksakademie, Gertenbach explored how damages to frescoes over time have altered the characteristics of architectural space. The temporality and changes of space parallel our own. They remind us of the singularity of life, of our mortality.

Gertenbach: In my work, I investigate the role of humans in (a) space. How do they move in it? Was something built, or did it already exist? What purposes has a place had, and what traces have been left behind? How much has the marble of a staircase worn away from the many people who have walked on it?

The role of space remains crucial for me: while in previous work I mainly created works about physical spaces, it now revolves around my own space. It concerns a broader understanding of being pregnant, of having ideas about something that is going to happen. About all the forms of space that arise with this. During my pregnancy, I became a space myself. Space also emerged. Space for standing still, for following intuition, for feeling, for stopping when I wanted to, for continuing when I wanted to. The child inside me grew, and I grew with her. When my child was born, I didn’t understand it, that there was suddenly something added, something that had always lived in me. That she had taken up her own space and was outside of me. She drank, she cried, she slept, and I followed her. I was my child, and she was me. And she grew. And suddenly, I felt it again. I want to paint, I want to create things, be a different self. The space had become vast.

I thought my work wouldn’t change because I became a mother, that everything would continue as before. And at the same time, I held on to old themes and questions. Because everything else was new in my life. But I realized that’s not what I want: I want my work and I to sync, to be interwoven, to intuitively create about my motherhood. Also, due to societal discussions about motherhood, I now feel the urgency. The theme is timeless, diverse, rich in sources, and personal at the same time. It intrigues me to look at other mothers, then and now. The physical but also the mental aspect of motherhood fascinates me.

Gertenbach looks at old techniques and translates them into her paintings and objects in the present. She analyzes the use of different materials such as jute and panel combined with various types of paint such as mineral silicate paint, which she makes herself with special pigments. Gertenbach: “Old religious art aims to reach something higher. An attempt to understand life, transience, and temporality. That’s what I am also looking for. Perhaps through my paintings, I have come to find beauty in transience. The now, the temporary, and the memory.”