World Fine Art Professionals and their Key-Pieces, 263 - Marloes der Kinderen

World Fine Art Professionals and their Key-Pieces, 263 – Marloes der Kinderen
At the exhibition ‘Water on Edge’ in the WM Gallery I saw images that reminded me of a voodoo world. I saw animistic creatures, totem faces, bats, bird’s nests, ominous branches, stares and lurking tigers in the bushes. They lit, often very symmetrically, against a dark background. That background looked like water, a river? Marloes der Kinderen, the maker of these special images, gave further explanation a few days later.

The images were made in France, says Marloes der Children. She can be found regularly for many years on the banks of a fast-flowing river in the Massif Central, the Allier. In the neighborhood, in the town of Chanteuges, she runs a chambre d’hôte and gives all kinds of courses and lessons, from drawing and painting to photography and music and song, through her organization Artedu.

The magic of nature
The photos that she has taken of the banks of the river since 2008, and that yield those special images, have resulted in the project ‘Water on Edge’. With her camera she tries to capture the magic, the spirit of nature. “I wait for the right light, the right shadow to express as much as possible the magic of what I see.”
In doing so, she tilts her gaze, so that she no longer sees nature horizontally. Marloes: “We have been conditioned to view the landscape horizontally. During my training I came into contact with Merleau-Ponty and the phenomenology of perception that prompted me to look differently. If you do that you will see very different things. A new world opens up for you. ”

Watch as a child
She watches like a child. “It is easier for a child to turn his head and see what he sees then. We adults are no longer used to that. When we lie down, our brain still puts things upright. When I put my head on my shoulders as a child, tilting 90 degrees, and then look, I see something completely different. I accept that image, I forget what it is, let it act on me, and capture it. ”
Although she still watches the bank across the river, she ends up in a completely different world.

A few seconds
Some people think that she manipulated these images in the computer, but that is not the case. The images are real. “It is the reality, it is the realistic image. It is not magical realism, but realism that I try to make magical. People often say: ‘you have mirrored that double in the computer’. Because the photos are often very symmetrical. In the beginning I often made symmetrical images, but I have been doing that less recently. Of course you edit the photo a little bit in the computer in Adobe, adjusting the light dark, the saturation, because they are RAW photos, as was done in the darkroom before, but that’s it, I don’t manipulate anything. ”

In the meantime she no longer has to turn her head, she can already see it. “I can already convert the image to 90 degrees in my head. I am fully trained on it. I know every inch of this river, 15 kilometers to the west and 15 kilometers to the east so to speak. You only see something like this for a few seconds. A piece of nature with history and memories, not cleaned up. It is gone and it will never come back, because the shadow is never the same again. But also the following year, for example after a flood, branches are again dragged and everything is different, which gives new images. It is inexhaustible. The Allier is a fast flowing river. That makes it extra difficult. It is never mirror-smooth. A breath of wind or a jumping fish, then it is already gone. ”

The autumn
She knows when to start shooting. “Often towards the end of the day, also because I like the light very much. I shoot most in October / November, also because of the colors in the fall. ”
The first photo she took this way can be seen as her key work. “I took that photo in 2008. After that, my camera broke down and I couldn’t do much for many years until I was able to buy a good camera and lenses again in 2015. All those years that first location was in my head. I thought ‘I have to go back to that place’, thinking I could only find it there. It turned out not to be so. Because I also saw it closer to home on the river and I started shooting like crazy, until now, and will certainly continue to do so, in addition to new projects. ”

Exhibitions
She has already had some exhibitions. The first was December 2018 / January 2019 at the WTC Art Gallery in Rotterdam. After that she had an exhibition all summer in Pébrac, in the South of France, and in October / November an exhibition in an important gallery in Paris, the GNG Gallery. And now her special photos can be seen at WM Gallery in Amsterdam. Due to the coronavirus, the gallery is unfortunately closed, but online, via social media, it continues until the end of May. It can be seen online on YouTube and Vimeo.

Actually painter
Marloes der Kinderen attended the Art Academy in Den Bosch for a year, but then soon switched to the Teacher Training Program in Tilburg. “There you did just as much in a week as in the academy in two months.”
She is actually a painter, which is clearly visible in her photos. “I grew up at home among the paintings, because my father was a collector. I always watch like a painter. Even when I work in Adobe. That atmosphere is very important to me. I have photographed next to my painting but I always thought ‘I have to exhibit with my paintings’, but then I never had enough work because I had sold my work in the meantime. And I didn’t have enough time to paint because I gave courses. ”

Looking without prejudice
What is her experience of art life? “I don’t depend on it. I had to wait a long time before I could do this. If you don’t have money, you can’t have prints made, you can’t exhibit. That is a problem for many artists, especially for starting artists. With a small legacy I was finally able to do this and did it. ”
Finally, what is her artistic philosophy? Marloes: “Keep an open mind. You don’t have to travel far to see new things. My eye photographs all day long. Even if I have to stay inside, I see things that are worthwhile all the time. You also shoot to share that. You also want to show those special experiences to others. ”
https://vimeo.com/398784581
Images
1) Marloes der Kinderen, 2) # 2 © MderKinderen, 3) # 3 © MderKinderen, 4) # 4 © MderKinderen, 5) # 5 © MderKinderen, 6) # 6 © MderKinderen, 7) # 7 © MderKinderen, 8) # 8 © MderKinderen, 9) # 10 © MderKinderen, 10) Water On Edge 2008 (keywork)

 

www.marloesderkinderen.com
https://www.marloesderkinderen.com/3188420/statement-reviews
http://gallerywm.com/WP/
https://www.artedu.nl
http://www.artedu.nl/maison/
https://ifthenisnow.eu/nl/verhalen/magische-beelden-van-marloes-der-kinderen