Artist Carina Mathod "Reflected Glass Objects"
By Yevgenia Borisova
A group of Dutch artists are exhibiting their works in the "Contemporary Dutch Artists in Russia" exhibition which opened last week in the Anna Akhmatova Museum in the Fontanny Dom.
Pieces of classic art -- photographs, watercolours, sculptures, collages, oil on canvas -- by 23 artists are on display, together with hanging boxes with angels inside, segmented female body parts and objects with pins and diamonds.
On entering the room, you are faced with paintings of a naked, fair-haired sleeping beauty cut into four segments and placed on four separate canvases. All four pictures are attached to the ceiling and it is quite hard to see the complete woman -- or rather imagine what she would look like in one piece -- at once. But artist Jan Cermak gives us clues: if you see one of the segments called "The front is better", which is beautifully written on the painting, it means you are actually looking at the reverse of the picture. But since the reverse was also interesting, it was hard to say whether the front side was actually "better" than the back! A matter of opinion.
Some paintings are quite controversial. You might well argue with Marieke van Ameron over her "Man in Dunes" (Indian ink on paper). Here you see a pair of small corpses in two little coffins. The artist has her opinion, "I let myself be guided by what happens to cross my mind. The relation between nature and culture often plays a part, but what is more important to me is the question: how does it feel, does it make me happy, does it express an element of truth, the way I feel it?"
Bright compositions by Jolanda Stil in glass showcases attract the visitor with their joyful expressions. The component parts of these expressive faces -- mouths, eyes, fish tails, flowers and hearts -- are thrown together like a salad and put in gold frames with the strange name "The Holy Home".
Provocative glass artifacts by Carina Mathot are also interesting. Her "Temple of Diana" with its half-transparent silhouetted flesh-like beings are erotic and play on the senses while her "Altars of Fertility" and "Temple of Wishes" also play on the emotions.
Joyce op 't Eijnde's photocollage will keep the visitor intrigued for quite a while. The eye wanders trying to follow the gaze of a dark and sad-looking woman's head which protrudes from a hill's sandy slope. Perhaps she is staring at the short figure with a grotesque yellow face dressed in a purple cloak or the humpless camels behind it?
Ria van Santen's amusing work with boxes is worth attention. The boxes, which hang on the walls with open lids, invite the attention of sympathetic looking angels. Some are made from ceramics and others are beautifully sewn with tongue-in-cheek "Made in China" labels.
Other works by Sya De Nooyer are worth a mention. Here she presents us with paintings using oil and caseine. Particularly interesting is a graphic work entitled "Mongibello". Her graphical work shown at this exhibition is not a "short-time or fast idea so common today in Western Europe." She never uses photographs in between her graphics. She believes all senses are important and not a flat picture already cut out of a whole for the lazy viewer.
"A Place to Hide" by Judith Ivens.