02 august 2025, Flor Linckens
A breath of glass: Marinke van Zandwijk at the Nationaal Glasmuseum
Until 9 November 2025, the Nationaal Glasmuseum in Leerdam presents the exhibition 'Inflatable Thoughts', a new solo presentation by Marinke van Zandwijk (Galerie Franzis Engels). For this occasion, the artist created monumental installations in which glass bubbles become fragile vessels of meaning. Inspired by the famous symmetrical Rorschach test, these forms invite visitors to interpret them in their own way, through a feeling, an association or a memory.
Van Zandwijk is known for her distinctive combination of artisanal mastery and a sharp, intuitive visual language. From the age of fourteen, she has worked in the museum’s glassblowing studio, where she learned the craft from experienced masters. Her installations are built from bubbles, the primordial form from which all blown glass originates and which she considers to be a metaphor for the human condition. Each bubble is treated as an autonomous individual, shaped by the breath from within and the touch of external forms and materials. Every bubble is unique and bears the traces of its creation. She often deliberately shows the spot where the bubble was attached to the blowpipe, like a navel, a subtle reference to birth and individuality. These delicate details lend her work a gentle physicality, marked by vulnerability and growth.
In 'Inflatable Thoughts', the museum itself becomes a living organism. In the galleries, stairwell, entrance, garden and café, visitors encounter sculptural installations composed of glass bubbles, characterised by transparency, distortion and fragility. New works appear alongside older pieces, with each location subtly influencing the viewer’s experience of the work.
Van Zandwijk rarely works with glass alone. Her installations explore the tension between fragile forms and sturdy materials such as steel, rope, ceramics or forged iron. These contrasts heighten the sense of fragility in the glass. In earlier works, she created bubbles that were removed from their moulds too early, allowing them to develop freely: a sculptural expression of growth and imperfection.
Her working process is physically demanding and unforgivingly precise. In a previous interview with GalleryViewer, Van Zandwijk explained, “It’s fascinating to turn sand, lime and soda into a liquid material you can shape at a red-hot temperature. Viscous and sticky when hot and hard and fragile when cool. But to give that bubble expressiveness, to have it tell a story, which is something quite different than mastering traditional glass blowing."
Glassblowing demands deep material knowledge, speed, precision and intuition. It is a game of milliseconds, where each piece either succeeds or fails. Van Zandwijk describes it as a dance with the material, where the precise moment of exhalation is crucial. The distribution of the glass, the heat, and the strength of her breath all play a part. That intensity is palpable in the final work: fragile, fleeting and full of energy.
The philosophy behind her practice is rooted in a quote by the philosopher and humanist Erasmus: "Homo bulla est", or "man is a (soap) bubble". This idea runs like a thread through her work: the human being as a fragile, temporary and elusive presence. In every bubble, Van Zandwijk tries to capture something of that intangible inner world, with glass as the skin and air as the soul.
Van Zandwijk: “Erasmus meant this as a metaphor for the transitory and temporary nature of life. That's how I see it, but there's more to it. That bubble is filled with elusiveness, while the glass is the shell. A personality is also elusive. You can try to express it, but it’s not tangible. With my bubbles, I try to make it tangible in some way.”
Marinke van Zandwijk was born in 1987 in Tiel. She studied at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam and completed a residency at Sundaymorning@EKWC. Her work has been included in the collections of the Nationaal Glasmuseum, Ahold, the Ministry of the Interior, Rijnstate, DELA and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her work was previously shown at the Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar, Stadsmuseum Woerden, the Nationaal Glasmuseum, Kasteeltuinen Arcen, sculpture park Anningahof, Art Rotterdam, Salone del Mobile in Milan with Piet Boon and during the IJsselbiënnale.
