Mariken Wessels | NUDE - ARISING FROM THE GROUND

reopen now until 30 May 2020

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Comprising of sculpture, photography and film, and inspired by a series of Eadweard Muybridge collotypes, Wessels’ most recent work explores the motion of obese bodies and the animalistic aspects of the human form. Nude - Arising From The Ground was partly premiered at Art Rotterdam 2019, but this exhibition aims to give time and space for the entire work to be seen.
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In autumn 2020, the project will be part of a group show entitled Human After All: Ceramic Reflections in Contemporary Art at Museum Princessehof in Leeuwarden. Other participating artists are Geng Xue, William Cobbing, Klara Kristalova, Kris Lemsalu, Leiko Ikemura, Liliana Porter, Sharon Overmeieren, Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg. Curated by Tanya Rumpff.

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Amsterdam-based artist Mariken Wessels (NL, 1963) creates artist’s books, sculptures, installations, photo series and film works. Her multilayered projects offer poignant picture stories, combining appropriated (vernacular) imagery and self-produced images, usually featuring female protagonists struggling with life. Wessels’ works and books have been collected by museums, libraries and private collectors worldwide including; Centre Pompidou (Paris), ICP and MoMA (New York), Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (Munich), Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), Fotomuseum Antwerp (Belgium), and the Verbeke Foundation (Belgium).

The exhibition will officially be opened by Benno Tempel, director at Kunstmuseum Den Haag, at 18:00 in the presence of the artist. A new book, designed by Hans Gremmen, entitled Miss Cox (Nude - Arising from the Ground) will be launched during the opening.

Miss Cox (Nude – Arising from the Ground) is a many-sided artistic translation of artist Mariken Wessels’ fascination for an anonymous woman who had posed for Eadweard Muybridge’s camera in 1885. In the 24-image sequence ‘Arising from the Ground’ (plate 286) the obese woman, who was supposedly named Miss Cox, can be traced from lying down to a full upright position. Affected by her appearance, Wessels began to make large clay sculptures and to photograph obese female models swimming underwater. In these photographs Wessels focuses on the landscapes which a body assumes impressed by water. Besides the underwater series and photographic views of the sculptures, Miss Cox also contains studio views including sketches and other research materials.