A Parallel Planets piece by Pepe Serapio
Parallel Planets presents Katrien de Blauwer
in Wake Up and Smell the Paper
Story by Jofer Serapio and Interview by Erin Emocling
Mentioned: acquiring vintage photographs, cinematic language, and the decay of old paper
in Wake Up and Smell the Paper
Story by Jofer Serapio and Interview by Erin Emocling
Mentioned: acquiring vintage photographs, cinematic language, and the decay of old paper
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| image by Katrien De Blauwer |
To create something out of nothing is one thing, but to combine different things into a single entity that speaks volumes on its own is another. In culinary school, for example, you are taught to mind the compatibility of specific ingredients because macaroni and cheese with breast milk isn't going to get you on MasterChef. In dating, you check a person's preferences and interests, taking to mind whether the both of you can coexist for a long time (and maybe even until the end of time, if you believe in that sort of thing). A collage works with this idea, relying heavily on the artist's ability to screen different objects and harmonize a new whole.
A collage by Katrien De Blauwer seems simple enough at first glance. After all, it's just two photographs on old paper. That perception sticks with you for only a moment or two before you break through the surface and start overhearing the fascinating conversation between the equally important subjects, a dialogue of hope and fear. There is no main player here, no second stringer. Both photographs are stars in their own right.
The dynamism in her work explores the unconscious, the honest emotions that plague her and the rest of us. It often comes off as strange but at the same time it's still very familiar. Like a good mystery novel, her collage work is evocative, open to interpretation.
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| image by Katrien De Blauwer |
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| image by Katrien De Blauwer |
In a sense, one could say Katrien's foray into the art of collage-making was sparked by the spirit of rebellion. Her father had a large collection of albums filled with family pictures, but she was never allowed to touch or even look at them. Without a camera, she started cutting images out of the magazines lying around their home in order to make her own albums. She has always endeavored to find creativity in everything: the way one looks and dresses, the way one moves and expresses herself, the colors and decorations of one's house and the objects one collects.
Katrien does a lot of collecting herself, mostly of vintage photographs that have become synonymous with her art. She persistently stalks flea markets and second-hand bookshops, building good relationships with traders to aid her in the hunt. Sometimes, she stumbles upon something wonderful by accident, like from a container on the street.
Katrien finds a lot of her inspiration in films, particularly from the cinematic language employed by the likes of Andrei Tarkovsky, Ingmar Bergman, and Michelangelo Antonioni. There are also the diaries of Peter Beard, the photographs of both Miroslav Tichý and Yulia Kazban, the latter a young Russian photographer.
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| image by Katrien De Blauwer |
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| image by Katrien De Blauwer |
With tons of inspiration comes tons of productivity, and Katrien's 2014 is downright booked. There’s the femme(s) show at La(b) Galerie Artyfact in Paris. The age of collage show will be held at Feinkunst Krueger Gallery in Hamburg, Germany, on the beginning of March. Around the end of March, there will also be the Nothing But Good show at Kunstinitiatief Park in Tilburg, Holland. There are plans for a show in Belgium sometime in May, but so far, no details have been confirmed.
A few of her works will also appear in an independent magazine called Mékanik copulaire. Together with an independent publisher, she is working on a book of which she cannot share details as of yet. She does tell us that it might be released later this year.
Read on to our interview with Katrien De Blauwer and learn more about her process, what a collage is to her, and the language she loves. Mmm, paper!
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Parallel Planets: Hi, Katrien! Tell us something about yourself as a collage artist and before you became one.
Katrien De Blauwer: “I must be making collages for over 20 years now. I remember when I was studying in a fashion school in Antwerp, we had to make a kind of collage mood books to accompany our collection. I ended up spending all my time creating these books and never came to create the collection itself. By the end I got high points for my books, but insufficient for the clothes.
Later, I made collages that consisted of little fragments—a lot of repeated small pieces that kept me busy for hours. It was like I was fighting my demons and obsessions by cutting them into tiny pieces and displaying them.”
Parallel Planets: What defines your artistic style? What are your “trademarks”?
Katrien De Blauwer: “I think my work is very intimate and at the same time anonymous. It’s everybody’s story. It’s universal. It puts together autobiography and impersonality, like I’m telling my story in the third person.”
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| image by Katrien De Blauwer |
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| image by Katrien De Blauwer |
Parallel Planets: How do you position the images in your collages? When do you know that a certain object would fit your piece? Does it always depend on your feelings and intuition?
Katrien De Blauwer: “Definitely by feeling and intuition. Although there’s some logic in my working process. It can be divided in three parts:
1.) Looking for material, like paper backgrounds, old magazines and books.
2.) Preparing a bunch of material, which means tearing or roughly cutting images that touch me somehow.
3.) Making collages, which is usually a three- or four-hour session where I get into a flow and just create. It’s almost like someone else takes control. I follow my intuition without really knowing what the result will be. There’re only the paper fragments around me. Everything else disappears.”
Parallel Planets: How do your collages relate to your personal story?
Katrien De Blauwer: “Making collages is a daily obsessive routine, a way to express my thoughts and feelings in a direct way and to get a grip on my demons.
The main area of investigation is always myself. I’m trying to investigate my subconscious feelings, thought and fears. Over time the techniques to display this may vary, but the area of investigation remains the same.
I would like to quote Marina Abramović:
‘Difficult childhood problems, families, all those things, somehow become a treasure, become some kind of source of inspiration for later on.’”
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| image by Katrien De Blauwer |
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| image by Katrien De Blauwer |
Parallel Planets: How do you feel and/or what do you think about digital collages? What makes traditional (or paper) collages more “exquisite” than the digital renditions of today?
Katrien De Blauwer: “For some it works and they create nice pieces, but not for me. I have to feel and smell the paper. I want to sense the decay of old paper.
I think traditional collages have something that technology cannot offer. People will always be attracted to things from the past. I see technology only as a way to spread my work.
On screen the colors are more saturated, and you lose the feeling and fragility of the material.”
Parallel Planets: In this planet that we're thriving in—
What is your power animal?
“An elephant, because they are very social and altruistic: they even help elephants from other families and even totally different species, including humans, in pain. It is known that people who are injured are being guarded by elephants and that they help animals in need of saving.”
Who is your alternate ego?
“Patti Smith, because of her creativity, her power. She’s lost her husband, her best friend, her brother and turned her suffering into creativity.”
Parallel Planets: In an alternate universe where photographs do not exist—
What would your name be?
“Pina Bausch.”
What would you be doing instead?
“Dancing. It’s a language without words. I love dance.”
More from Katrien De Blauwer
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