CELEBRATING 25 YEARS OF PRACTICE
Order the beautiful book accompanying the show, ‘OUT SIDE IN SIDE OUT’, at Jap Sam Books.
Out Side In Side Out is an overview of 25 years of work by Dutch visual artist and performer Linda Molenaar, linking animal aspects in humans with human aspects in animals.
Dutch radio & tv program Vroege Vogels visited the exhibition, and made a video and audio report and wrote a little article about the show!
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Linda Molenaar’s work is not just crafting an idea in her head, it takes up her entire life. A life in which the artist makes unknown, and sometimes unloved, worlds her own.
A cello made of human hair, a tutu made of hundreds of worn-out ballet shoes, a grand piano made of a thousand piano hammers, countless thigh bones of mice out of pellets: the material is always the starting point for a journey of discovery. Wonderful combinations of materials tell us of major life themes such as symbiosis and autonomy, wonder and alienation, life and death, comfort and hope.
Self Portrait (2000) detail
The material with which Linda Molenaar shapes her ideas is located in strange and sometimes dark places. To get there, you have to hunt first. Feathers, pig’s teeth, silk ties or the skin of a Friesian horse; the collected loot is taken to the studio at home. Artisan techniques such as making wigs or spinning wool are taught. Or the studio turns into a nest when Linda spends weeks trying to incubate a chicken egg with her own body heat.
All kinds of different objects and elements of humans and animals, combined with prostheses and other ‘accessories’, are dissected, brought together, sewn and dressed into a being in its own right. Sometimes inhabited by the body of the artist herself. Linda then literally and figuratively crawls into her work to show it in person. The encounter with the work is an alienating experience. Is this real or fake, is it an animal or a human, is it dead or alive? An exciting confrontation that leads to a connection in the now.