In her abstract paintings, Eline Boerma processes sensory experiences, but not everyday ones. Boerma wants to imbue her works with the freedom she experiences while diving, kitesurfing and sailing. “I don't want to only tell a story, just like you can't tell what it's like to dive 40 metres under water. I want to create something to disappear into, like into the sea or night.” Somewhere I have never travelled... with work by Eline Boerma and Rachel Nieborg can be seen at Josilda da Conceição Gallery until 13 May.
Where is your studio located and what does it look like?
Until October 2023, my studio is the Dooyewaard Stipendium studio in Blaricum. This is part of the Dutch art prize from the Dooyewaard Foundation, awarded every year to a graduate of the HKU Fine Art. I am very happy that I can live and work here this year! It’s a small house, the largest part of which is the studio. It has high ceilings with large windows, which is perfect for painting. My studio is often chaotic. When I’m painting, I work very impulsively and intuitively and am only creating and not cleaning up.
You are a painter who works with oils and spray cans on canvas. Do you need a studio with natural light?
Colours often stand out better in natural daylight, but I also often work in the evening with light from a lamp. Sometimes, I create something in the evening and then I can only get a really good look at what I’ve done the next morning. So, it is not a requirement for painting, but absolutely necessary for process as a whole.
In the past, the titles of your work are often related to the music you were listening to while creating them. I can imagine it’s not very quiet in your studio. What music makes you most productive?
I often listen to music. The type depends on my mood. Usually, I put on a techno or drum-and-bass mix to get me focused, but sometimes I also listen to Dutch singers like as Merol, Froukje or Joost Klein. Lately, I’ve also been listening a lot of French music because I want to improve my French. Nowadays, my titles no longer originate directly from music, but listening to music often gives me more energy and movement in my work and it’s often just one big party in my studio.
Your work is currently on display at Josilda da Conceição and the titles no longer seem to refer to music, but to a transient state. Is that correct and how did that change come about?
I'm still exploring what exactly titles can add to my work and how I want to use them. Right now, I want the titles to hint at the way I feel about my work, rather than the music I was listening to. I want the titles and work to exist more on their own. The titles now often consist of a word, mostly a verb. It is in motion, like a fleeting memory fading or the wind alternating the surface of the water. But sometimes the titles also refer to my dreams, such as sailing around the world one day, or other things I was thinking about while creating the work. The titles have actually become more personal.
What inspired you to create the works that are currently on display?
My work is an ongoing visual investigation, so it's not like I made the series specifically for this show, but my work develops in phases and I keep discovering new things.
What inspired me was the starry night sky, clouds, rain, sunshine, sea and waves. Especially the fleeting sensory experiences you can have in relation to these. I am also into kitesurfing, freediving and sailing and I want to put the freedom you experience while doing these into my work. In retrospect, it has become clear to me that some works were inspired by memories and others are their own realities on canvas, created through reaction on reaction. I don't want to tell a story, just like you can't tell what it's like to dive 40 meters under water. I mean, I could try to explain it to you, but you really have to experience it for yourself. You have to experience it a sensory way, that's what it's all about. That's what art is all about for me. I don't want to say anything with my work, I don't want to tell a story, but create something to disappear into. Just like you can disappear into the sea or night.
Your duo exhibition with Rachel Nieborg is called Somewhere I have never travelled... How did the collaboration come about? Did you know each other before the exhibition?
We didn't know each other. Josilda invited me, for which I am very grateful, and brought us together for the exhibition. We then met a few times before the opening to discuss our work and see how it fits together.
And how does your work fit together?
Although our work is very different, there are some similarities. The human body plays a major role in both. My work is about my own body facing the canvas and Rachel, for example, examines the bodily forms of the model in photographs. There is also visual overlap, for example, with the use of threads in her work while I scratch the canvas.
How did you come up with the show’s mysterious title?
The title comes from the eponymous poem by E.E. Cummings that is about love – especially the kind of love that has the power to completely take over a person, even if you can't quite figure out why. Alternatively, you could consider it the love of something. Something you can get inside. Something that can change you in some way. Like some experiences you can have in nature. I also want to create such an experience with my work and in many of my works, memories of certain experiences come back in one form or another, especially those when I really felt free. When you feel the elements. When you truly experience something. Get blown away by the wind and fly as high as possible before crashing again. When you dance and sweat and run and breathe, but also to not breathe and to swim as far down as your lungs take you. I want art to be an adventure, too. That's why this title appealed to me so much. Also, with art, I want to go somewhere I've never been before...
Volatility and transience are important themes in your work. Why?
I realised that the freedom of a work lies in total immersion in the physical movement while painting, in letting go and trusting intuition. I want to show the volatility and freedom with which it was painted. Moving with your breath, with the blink of your eyelids, with the hairs on your arm standing on end and losing track of time. Never knowing where you'll end up after making choice after choice or reaction after reaction, like moments in time. In other words, the work embodies fleeting moments, both in the making and inspiration. Volatility of paint strokes like the volatility of moments that fly by. I discovered that I really appreciate those temporary moments and fleeting memories in life. How they lead to a visual image and how that visual image is created in the same way.
You are at the start of your career. Are there any projects you would like to carry out someday?
I would like to have my work hanging in different museums around the world someday and I would like to make very large works of several square metres that you can completely immerse yourself in.
What are you currently working on?
I'm always developing new work, but at the moment, I'm working on a show at Galerie Pouloeuff that opens June 18th.