Julie van der Vaart is a photographic artist and educator born in Maastricht, The Netherlands, living and working in Belgium. After a Master in Fine-arts, Photography at the Media, Arts & Design-faculty Genk and a Master after Master program of Research in Art and Design at Sint Lucas Antwerp she did a one year residency at the Van Eyck Academy in Maastricht where she focussed on the production of self published photobooks. Since 2020 she is supported by the Mondriaan Fund, receiving the stipendium for established artists, and since 2021 she is participating in the two year international Masterclass Reflexions 2.0.
“In a decade’s time Julie van der Vaart evolved from a promising photographer into a weathered artist. Van der Vaart has the DNA of the scientist-philosopher-naturalist-explorer. She keeps seeking for different angles on a set of recurrent underlying themes. Her themes are: subjectivity of time, mathematical singularity, vastness of the cosmos, mortality, nature, and thus also the driving force of the universe: eros. But at the heart of the oeuvre of Julie van der Vaart also sits a timid, yet abundant, mystery. In a way, her photography seems to articulate an inner conflict between passion for science and a suppressed feeling for spirituality. This wonderful duality has trickled down in the latter artworks in her libraric, analogue oeuvre. Throughout this oeuvre JVDV develops form and method to keep up with the requirements of her themes. Science, time, cosmos and spirituality are hence translated in star spangled nudes, esoteric b&w landscapes, and now, in her most recent work; in polymer prints of timeless caves.” - Peter Waterschoot
Beyond Time
“Landscapes and bodies – these are two subjects that recur constantly in the work of Julie van der Vaart. Her photographic archive contains innumerable monochrome series of nudes and romantic vistas, from which she can continually compile new series. Whether a photo was taken yesterday or two years ago is immaterial. The temporal dimension has started playing a greater part in her work. Inspired by theories of non-linear time, astrophysics and quantum mechanics, she has begun experimenting in the darkroom. For the “Beyond Time” series, she manually processed her photos with chemicals to produce bodies that seem to dissolve into the cosmos, simultaneously appearing and disappearing. A photo is prosaically a record of the past, but now it remains eternally afloat in imaginary time.” - Merel Bem
Deep Time
“Julie van der Vaart’s photography seems to articulate an inner conflict between a passion for science and a suppressed feeling for spirituality. This wonderful duality has trickled down into her work. Throughout her oeuvre, van der Vaart developed form and method to keep up with the requirements of her themes. Science, time, cosmos and spirituality have been translated in star-spangled nudes, esoteric black and white landscapes, and now, in her most recent work, in photopolymer etchings of timeless caves.
Caves are the belly of the world, the abdominal abyss of ancient memory. There is a form of imprinted awe that is felt when entering one. These wonderful palaces formed by time, water and calcium carbonate were the womb-like shelter for hunter-gatherers, and their messages have succeeded to reach us through many millennia. To enter a cave is to undergo a psychological journey where each step deeper into the world below is paired with not only wonder, wisdom and fear, but also with losing track of human time. After all, the caves don’t care about human time, and clearly, neither does Julie van der Vaart.” - Peter Waterschoot
Waterfall
In “Zen Mind, Beginners Mind” Shunryu Suzuki compares life (or consciousness) to a waterfall. When the water is a river, it is complete, it is one. When the water falls from the mountain it is separated by the wind and rocks into drops of water. Suzuki says that our life is like a drop of water, no longer one but separated from the whole. Before we were born we had no feeling; we were one with the universe, which he calls “essence of mind”, afterwards we are separated by birth from this oneness and when we die, we become one again.
This analogy sounds very spiritual but when we think about the universe and the big bang theory, we could say this is similar. There is oneness, energy, all bundled together. This energy separates and forms new things, energy changes into matter and changes back into energy in a kind of dance... And in the end (the big crunch) it all comes together again, to be one again.
This series is a final chapter on the subject of time. Water forms caves very slowly over time in a process that is barely perceivable in a single lifespan. Water itself, however, is constantly changing. In the end, everything changes. In this ever-changing process, the duration is not important, only the fact that it exists is.
“In a decade’s time Julie van der Vaart evolved from a promising photographer into a weathered artist. Van der Vaart has the DNA of the scientist-philosopher-naturalist-explorer. She keeps seeking for different angles on a set of recurrent underlying themes. Her themes are: subjectivity of time, mathematical singularity, vastness of the cosmos, mortality, nature, and thus also the driving force of the universe: eros. But at the heart of the oeuvre of Julie van der Vaart also sits a timid, yet abundant, mystery. In a way, her photography seems to articulate an inner conflict between passion for science and a suppressed feeling for spirituality. This wonderful duality has trickled down in the latter artworks in her libraric, analogue oeuvre. Throughout this oeuvre JVDV develops form and method to keep up with the requirements of her themes. Science, time, cosmos and spirituality are hence translated in star spangled nudes, esoteric b&w landscapes, and now, in her most recent work; in polymer prints of timeless caves.” - Peter Waterschoot
Beyond Time
“Landscapes and bodies – these are two subjects that recur constantly in the work of Julie van der Vaart. Her photographic archive contains innumerable monochrome series of nudes and romantic vistas, from which she can continually compile new series. Whether a photo was taken yesterday or two years ago is immaterial. The temporal dimension has started playing a greater part in her work. Inspired by theories of non-linear time, astrophysics and quantum mechanics, she has begun experimenting in the darkroom. For the “Beyond Time” series, she manually processed her photos with chemicals to produce bodies that seem to dissolve into the cosmos, simultaneously appearing and disappearing. A photo is prosaically a record of the past, but now it remains eternally afloat in imaginary time.” - Merel Bem
Deep Time
“Julie van der Vaart’s photography seems to articulate an inner conflict between a passion for science and a suppressed feeling for spirituality. This wonderful duality has trickled down into her work. Throughout her oeuvre, van der Vaart developed form and method to keep up with the requirements of her themes. Science, time, cosmos and spirituality have been translated in star-spangled nudes, esoteric black and white landscapes, and now, in her most recent work, in photopolymer etchings of timeless caves.
Caves are the belly of the world, the abdominal abyss of ancient memory. There is a form of imprinted awe that is felt when entering one. These wonderful palaces formed by time, water and calcium carbonate were the womb-like shelter for hunter-gatherers, and their messages have succeeded to reach us through many millennia. To enter a cave is to undergo a psychological journey where each step deeper into the world below is paired with not only wonder, wisdom and fear, but also with losing track of human time. After all, the caves don’t care about human time, and clearly, neither does Julie van der Vaart.” - Peter Waterschoot
Waterfall
In “Zen Mind, Beginners Mind” Shunryu Suzuki compares life (or consciousness) to a waterfall. When the water is a river, it is complete, it is one. When the water falls from the mountain it is separated by the wind and rocks into drops of water. Suzuki says that our life is like a drop of water, no longer one but separated from the whole. Before we were born we had no feeling; we were one with the universe, which he calls “essence of mind”, afterwards we are separated by birth from this oneness and when we die, we become one again.
This analogy sounds very spiritual but when we think about the universe and the big bang theory, we could say this is similar. There is oneness, energy, all bundled together. This energy separates and forms new things, energy changes into matter and changes back into energy in a kind of dance... And in the end (the big crunch) it all comes together again, to be one again.
This series is a final chapter on the subject of time. Water forms caves very slowly over time in a process that is barely perceivable in a single lifespan. Water itself, however, is constantly changing. In the end, everything changes. In this ever-changing process, the duration is not important, only the fact that it exists is.
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