Elise van der Linden is exhibiting at the Mondrian House as part of 'Equilibrium'. For this exhibition, the Deventer artist was inspired by Piet Mondrian's quest for balance.
In this interview by Ine Dammers Elise discusses her work, motivations and exhibition Equilibrium, in which she is exhibiting with Henriëtte van 't Hoog.
You made an installation in Mondrian's birthplace, do you have an affinity with his work?
I find the period when he moved towards abstraction particularly exciting. The move away from a faithful representation of nature, as seen in the series of paintings of a tree, and his attempt to capture the rhythm of the branches in lines and planes, the ever-increasing abstraction. I experience that period in his work as a process of awareness. Rhythm, movement and transformation: these are elements I recognise, a search for the essence. By immersing myself in his work, I become more aware that art is also about leaving things out. That makes certain things more visible, the things you choose. Unlike Mondrian, I think that man can only partially control the social engineering of the world and is constantly fighting for it. I focus mainly on the interaction between man and other forces of nature.
Specifically for this exhibition, I created a large horizontal work that takes as its starting point the opposition between the geometric and the organic: human order versus other forces of nature, e.g. something grown or forms created by other (destructive) forces of nature that can sometimes reveal themselves to us as chaos. It is a continuation of previous spatial works, such as Constellation ( 2015). In this work, I was concerned with finding order in something that is organic; in the organically formed, no line is horizontal or vertical. I find it exciting when shapes tend towards chaos; that includes skewed lines. My starting point in this work was the human body, the torso, but not literally, I was much more concerned with where openings are, what is hard, what is soft, what is deeper, as a play with surfaces, with shadow and light. I approached the interior space of the body architecturally: a human being that can be entered as rooms. You can wander imaginary through these rooms, there are openings, corners, interior spaces, light and dark. The skin of this work is plaster, you enter a white, silent world. Interview continues below image.
Constellation (2015), sculpture by Elise van der Linden.
I often use architecture and architectural forms because they are all around us in the inhabited world. The buildings in a city are spaces within which something can take place. You can wander in them, explore, there are walls, passages. To me, wandering is something like moving without a plan or purpose, with all senses open. Each time, places with different atmospheres reveal themselves. I also associate buildings with the spaces in my own mind. I also experience ghost villages as mental and physical spaces; there is an atmosphere there that inspires me.
What fascinates you so much about ghost villages?
In ghost villages, you feel how time passes, we have a limited time of life, to do what we want to do. When I am there, I feel like I am seeing a kind of truth that is hidden away: we maintain everything, restore, clean. We want to keep out the natural course of things, ageing, and are constantly in opposition to anything that might undermine order. I sometimes feel a bit separated as a result. In such abandoned villages, you can see the forces of nature coming together; storms, erosion, insects, gravity, vegetation act on the buildings. There is a kind of cosmic truth. I often go to take photos and video in abandoned villages around Berlin. These were abandoned by the Russian garrison after the fall of the Wall. There are still many traces of a history: houses, a theatre, a school, a sports hall. It is empty, deserted and decaying, you feel far from everything there, but also just very close to something very real. Nature is slowly taking over the man-made world there again.
You manifest in very different ways, how do you deal with that?
I work in different disciplines: photography, video projects and sculptures. For each project, I choose how to execute it. This also depends on the place it is intended for: an art space, the facade of a building or a theatre festival (De Parade). With spatial work, I started several years ago. I start with small sketches and then the work naturally grows further under my hands. It is important to me that you see that it is handmade. My video installations and animations have a totally different working process. For Shades of Silence for example, I designed a building in a 3D animation computer programme using the photos I took in the ghost villages as inspiration. Then, in this virtual building, I started covering the walls of the corridors and rooms with textures. I then proceed like a painter; I choose the colours, mattes and grittiness and mix the colours myself in the computer. It then becomes a kind of digital collage on a 3D object: I cover the whole building.
Wall sculpture 'Continuum' made by Elise van der Linden specifically for 'Equilibrium'. Photo: Peter Putters / Nozem Fotografie
Is time an important element in your video installations?
At Shades of silence (2017, 5 min, 25 sec), I let the viewer wander slowly backwards through empty rooms. In this work, I have manipulated time, so to speak: there are two temporal dimensions, that of inner and outer space, two worlds moving past each other. The inner world is still and empty, while the outer world is very dynamic: elusive shadows flash past the windows. With that contrast, I want to create a hypnotic atmosphere, putting the viewer in a state between thinking and dreaming and completely absorbed in the artwork, a space where he can be free from the frames he is normally stuck in. I am looking for a different experience of time, apart from all our rational planning and intervention on nature. i really like the fact that looking at these images can be a starting point for a cascade of feelings and thoughts.
Surely the desolation of villages has a political background?
That is not the main issue for me. I am primarily a spectator and see that the natural course of events ensures that a new balance is created each time. I find it especially fascinating to observe these processes of change towards a new balance between man and nature (forces) each time, in which I see great beauty. Artists, with whom I feel related, are for example: Saskia Olde Wolbers, Rob Voerman and Tjebbe Beekman. I find it extraordinary the way they react in their work to the present time, in which everything is becoming more and more artificial, virtual and digital. The project New Babylon by Constant Nieuwenhuys I find inspiring. I keep asking myself how I relate to the technological civilisation that sometimes seems detached from nature and the coherence of everything. I want to contrast this with an atmosphere of stillness, of wandering and freedom.
One of your pictures is titled 'Entropy'. Entropy is a term for disorder, or degeneration of a system, isn't it?
In the sculpture Detachment - which I am working on now - I am looking for the balance between the disintegration and the static. All the ground disappears under your feet. The shapes at the edge can be recognised as architectural forms, but inwards, these forms collapse and there is only empty space. The photo Entropy was made just before the collapse of the rotting wooden roof structure through which plants are already growing. Wind, rain, insects will slowly but surely disintegrate the structure. I tried to capture this process in that photo.
Will this process of decay also be able to be experienced in the 'Equilibrium' exhibition?
I made a big wall sculpture there, a kind of installation. It would be nice if you thought some parts of it came out of the ceiling that ended up on the wall and floor.