Studio visit with Satijn Panyigay
Satijn Panyigay invites us into her studio to talk about her creative process and the latest work.
Satijn Panyigay remains unwaveringly concerned with the internal machinations of the mind. Where her earlier works represented raw emotions like grief and sadness, the last couple of years her interest shifted towards more subtle feelings. Feelings of melancholy, but also hope and excitement for the unknown future that is coming shine through and harmonize in often strict but poetic images. Graduating with a series in which she photographed the houses of deceased people, she has developed her interest in absent spaces in series such as No Room For Light (2014), Melankólia (2016-ongoing), Afterglow (2019 and (Living) room (2019). Panyigay photographs the emptiness and silence in abandoned interiors and brings the present and absent together. With a harmonious discord between light and dark, cheerful and gloomy, resilience and vulnerability. Underneath the surface of these sober interior images are subjects such as transience, loneliness and restlessness, but also resignation and wonder about the beauty of life.
She finds comfort and recognition in daily objects and cares for the mystic vibe that light and shadows create in architectural environments. The way light enters a room, touches - or nearly touches - an object, and how you can freeze moments in time, is what draws her to photography. Panyigay’s photographs give you room for contemplation. They often don’t scream for your attention, but the soft colors and contrasts lure you in quietly.
She works with a Fujifilm medium format camera and her family’s old 35mm cameras. The slow process of working with film and the atmosphere of the analog image, captured her a while ago. The presentation of work is very important to her and she likes to make handmade books and boxes. Panyigay works on location and in her photo studio in Utrecht, where she also gives photo courses about finding your authenticity as an artist, and coaches other photographers.
(Represented by Galerie Caroline O'Breen)