World Fine Art Professionals and their Key-Pieces, 513 - Margot Rijven
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World Fine Art Professionals and their Key-Pieces, 513 – Margot Rijven
In the exhibition Nieuwe Impuls, in which work by new members of the KunstWerkt foundation was on display, my eye was immediately drawn to a beautiful green monitor lizard. Or was it a dinosaur, a large lizard or a crocodile? Its skin was covered with green glass shards. Behind the animal was a large diptych of a canyon. Was that its habitat?
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I asked its creator, Margot Rijven, a few days later. Margot: “The animal could be a lizard, or a monitor lizard or a dinosaur, but I call it a crocodile.” Its glass skin makes it shine. How did Margot get those glass shards?
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Glass with green edges
“I smashed car windows at the scrapyard. When you smash it, you get a nice little crumbling of the glass, the edges of which are green, turquoise green. I also painted the base of the skin green. That enhances the effect. The glass gives a glittering and jagged effect, but it is not sharp, you can touch it and even stroke it.”
And the landscape behind it, is that the natural habitat? “I have compiled a landscape, a fantasy landscape, composed of different images of African canyons. It is not the natural landscape for the animal. The canyon landscape was created by erosion and was once sea. It is millions of years old. The crocodile is also a remnant of prehistoric times that has survived the centuries. That is what the crocodile and the landscape have in common. They refer to the reptilian brain of man, the most basic instincts and impulses, and to the age-old ground under our feet, with which we no longer always feel contact. I make my work to restore this contact.
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Destruction and construction
In her work, Margot combines the raw and the sweet in life, she says. Both the process of making and the theme in her work are always about the interplay between constructive and destructive forces, blossoming and decay. “I demolish old paintings, tear up old books, I smash windows and from the remains I build a new work.”
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Where does that come from?
“As soon as my own artistic creations start to feel like ballast, I want to free myself of it by destroying it. It helps me to accept a part of life that I can’t deal with very well. I cut up my old paintings and use these clippings as collage material. I recently burned a painting and filmed it. This burning process symbolizes the circle of life for me.”
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Does Margot have a key work?
“When I had children, I made a self-portrait. This portrait was one of the first works in which I combined painting with collage material. I depicted an innocent side and a dark side of myself, of motherhood and of life in general. When my children were born, in addition to the love, I also felt the weight of their vulnerability and my responsibility to protect them. Paradoxically, with the arrival of new life, the fragility of existence also became more real to me. This has changed my way of practicing art forever. The theme in the work I make is often about the things in life that you cannot control and the attempts of people to deal with them. You have to be able to let go of what you cannot control, otherwise it will not work.”
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How long has she been an artist?
“I’ve always drawn. I studied visual therapy. For that, you had to be able to paint well. Years later, in 2015, I studied part-time at the Nieuwe Akademie Utrecht art school. I was able to combine that with my job. I still work at institutions as a creative therapist.”
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What is her experience of the art world?
“I have always worked quite soloistically. That is where I got stuck. I was working alone in the studio, which was also in a suburb. Making art flourishes by seeking connections. I started networking more. I found a studio in the city centre. Not so long ago I joined the KunstWerkt foundation. It is fun to talk to colleagues about art content and issues you encounter. I visit more exhibitions and get inspired by what I see there. That is how cross-pollinations arise.”
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Finally, what is her philosophy?
“I see art as a means of connection and communication. My wish is that the works I make appeal to something universal, that the viewer recognizes something of themselves in them.”
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Images
1)The age of Kali 2, 2) Goddess of loss, 3) Where the gods rule, 4) Rex in Zoo 2.0 (1565×2000), 5) Circle of light, 6) Maria full of grace, 7) Mountain study 4, 8) Self portrait with rat, 9) Deep connection (1265×1700), 10 ) In the name of the mother (1392×1700)
https://margotrijven.com/
https://www.instagram.com/margotrijven/
https://www.karmijnkunst.nl/kunstenaarsinfo/margotrijven
https://inzaken.eu/2025/02/12/de-krokodil-van-margot-rijven/
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