Tineke Meirink is an illustrator, artist and author. In her new exhibition ‘Everything Is Already There’, Meirink examines seemingly uninteresting objects with a keen eye and a sense of humour. She draws inspiration from chance discoveries, the beauty of the everyday, and the traces left behind by time. ‘Inspiration is everywhere!’
In her solo project ‘Trashures’, Tineke paints on pieces of wood she has found. Her realistic and illustrative paintings are a little puzzle every time. What suits the found object? This results in works that are sometimes finished in one go, and others that may lie waiting for months for a flash of inspiration.
The idea of transforming found pieces of wood with a few small additions arose whilst Tineke was working on the ‘Stop:watch’ project. ‘Stop:watch’ is the project in which she takes photographs of everyday objects and, by digitally adding small illustrative elements, completely alters the meaning of the photograph. You look at a shape, an object, and see more or something else. This is called pareidolia: a psychological phenomenon whereby people perceive familiar patterns, especially faces, in random images. For example, a socket becomes a little face, a cloud becomes an animal, a rope becomes a snake. Eigen Houtje, the collection of wooden birds on sale at Gallery Untitled, is the analogue version of Stop:watch and the more illustrative precursor to Trashures.
The wood Tineke works with has a visible history. Old layers of paint, rounded corners, surfaces smoothed by the elements, rusty nails, holes – all little treasures she uses to give them a new lease of life.
View ‘Everything is already there’ now at Gallery Untitled!