02 august 2023, Pienk de Gaay Fortman
The resilience of women in Margaret Lansink's images
Photographer Margaret Lansink (1961) plays with the (dis)connection between humans and nature in 'Friction' at Galerie Bildhalle Amsterdam. Lansink demonstrates her flawless mastery of analogue photography techniques, from silver gelatin printing to platinum palladium. Her artistic objective is to make themes from her own life universal, such as getting older and being a woman, in order to inspire and facilitate discussion about them. Lansink: "I feel I definitely have a story to tell. By mixing the female story with the timeless beauty of nature, age becomes irrelevant and the interpersonal resilience of women across all generations becomes visible. It is important for us women to work together, support, inspire and motivate each other. I call this 'intergenerational feminism'."
There we are - surrounded by your first solo exhibition 'Friction' at Bildhalle Amsterdam, location Willemsparkweg. What are your criteria for collaborating with this gallery?
Visibility and a wide reach, because Bildhalle is a renowned gallery that shows its artists in many places. During the build-up, a surprise occurred: Swiss collectors instantly fell in love and bought the large artwork Landing (2023) hanging at the entrance. A fantastic start of this exhibition.
Margaret Lansink, Landing I & II, 2023, Bildhalle
One of your sources of inspiration is Simone de Beauvoir. In your book, you quote her: 'Life is a process of becoming, of eternal becoming'. How does this quote relate to your work?
The quote fits with the whole series shown here. Getting wise is fun, but the change my body is undergoing is difficult. I asked myself: am I going to embrace that change or am I going to fight it? I have fought a lot in my life and I don't want to do that anymore. I want to live with the flow of life. I have been to Japan a few times and discovered wabi-sabi there.
Wonderful that the trip to Japan has inspired you. For the images in your series 'Becoming' (2023) you travelled to Death Valley in California.
That's right, I made a road trip there with my partner and explored the surroundings. I lived with nature time over there rather than clock time. In the evening, we went into the tent at eight o'clock, because it was completely dark by then, and in the morning, we woke up at five o'clock to the howling coyotes and the rising sun. It was magical to live like that for a while.
Margaret Lansink, Becoming I, III, IV, 2023, Bildhalle
A magnificent trip it must have been. Was it to recharge or did you have the ambition to take your camera equipment and make a series?
Purposely to make a photo series. Before that, I had an analogue Leica L6 with me and this year, for the first time, also a digital Leica because I wanted to make platinum palladium prints and in this technique you use digital negatives. That's where I shot some of these photos: timeless landscapes in the form of mountains, trees, bushes and sand.
You combine these with the other visual half, which are portraits of models. What is the story behind these?
The models are dancers from the Scapino ballet in Rotterdam, who retired at the age of 35. They have retrained and may have chosen another profession, but dancing remains their passion. With this, I want to express their female resilience and illustrate that by embracing change, strength comes from imperfection.
Wonderful, the beauty of the passage of time. What techniques did you use?
I printed this series of small images titled 'Becoming' in the darkroom, they are silver gelatin prints. I also connected the landscapes and portraits from the Japanese philosophy with kintsugi. That is a technique of gluing and accentuating broken ceramics with gold leaf with the idea that the object can become more beautiful than before. In some works, I have enhanced contrasts by adding a layer of charcoal. Ultimately, I do everything on intuition.
The human body is also the focus of 'Body maps' (2019). How did this series come about?
I asked women my own age to model. For this project, I spent six weeks in Portugal after the wildfires in 2017. The area was totally flat. During that period, I was also concerned with getting older and considering plastic surgery. In considering whether to intervene in my body, I saw a link to the wildfires that were partly caused by farmers burning the eucalyptus plants, which are highly flammable. It was precisely human intervention that had disastrous consequences for the forests.
Margaret Lansink, Friction, 2023, Bildhalle
Did that experience affect your decision to do/don't do cosmetic surgery?
I don't know if that experience directly contributed to it. However, it did contribute to how I experience ageing now. It feels like embracing who I am, where I am and what I stand for. I feel I definitely have a story to tell. By blending the female story with the timeless beauty of nature, age becomes irrelevant and the mutual resilience of women across all generations becomes visible. It is important for us women to work together, to help, inspire and motivate each other. I call this 'intergenerational feminism'.
Because you give portfolio reviews for young photographers. Can you give an example of such a coaching process where this intergenerational feminism plays a role?
I have a photographer from London who started a coaching course with me last year. She just had an exhibition and we are currently working on a book together. I have also been coaching photography students towards their final exams at Maastricht University for a few years now. I love doing that.
It's all about having a connection and being open to feedback it seems to me.
That's great that you say that because for me, it is a condition that I do have a meeting first before engaging in one-to-one coaching sessions. And that the connection is mutual. It's great when you get energy from each other. This is also what I mean by inspiring and motivating each other.
Margaret Lansink, Reach Out, 2022, Bildhalle
So far, it sounds like you reflect a lot on the choices you make as an artist and human being. Can you highlight another work that shows your autobiographical nature?
Then I would mention the work Reach out (2022) that we are in front of now. We see two women standing together; their backs, buttocks and calves gently touching to indicate the connection symbolising a friendship. The title also symbolises the energy to be invested in any friendship. Deliberately, not all body parts touch each other, because despite being very open, I believe that in any relationship, you have to keep some mystery to yourself. And simultaneously know how to find each other again.
For this work, you used a slightly different technique.
This is indeed liquid light. Unlike the silver gelatin print of 'Becoming', the light-sensitive is in the paper. For Reach out (2022), I prepare the paper myself by spreading light-sensitive emulsion on it with a Japanese brush. During this process, I cannot see what kind of result it leads to, hence it again connects to the beauty of imperfection.
Exciting process it sounds to me, of not knowing exactly what will come out.
It certainly is. Of the 10 liquid lights I make from one and the same image, only 1 or 2 are good enough to use for my series. I do keep these because after a while I often find these imperfect images quite beautiful.
Margaret Lansink, Snow-White, 2022, Bildhalle
Besides that, is there another traditional photographic technique you experiment with?
In the work Snow-White (2022), I apply one of the oldest techniques in photography, platinum palladium. It is also a darkroom technique only for this I need UV light instead of darkroom light. Platinum palladium lasts as long as 1,000 years. The outcome is always different, as can be seen in the organic edges and tone of the print.
Amazing how you master this kind of centuries-old light-sensitive technique flawlessly. Not only the final photographs are art, but also the whole technical process leading up to them is an art form. Not without reason did you win the 2019 Hariban Grand Prize for the project 'Borders of Nothingness - On the Mend' (2018).
For this residency, I combined 170-year-old analogue techniques with contemporary photography. 'Hari' means glass plates and 'ban' printing plate in Japanese. Using kizuki handmade washi paper and 23Kt gold leaf, I created the works Tranquility I and II (2021), which also hang here in the Bildhalle.
If we think outside the box of residencies and galleries, what would be a dream location for you to exhibit?
It is funny that you ask. Then I recall my graduation in 2012 from the Fotoacademie Amsterdam. The director asked me: what is your goal? I answered that I want to show a retrospective at Huis Marseille between the ages of 80 and 90. For me, that means always reflecting on whether I am on the right path. And that means being able to make autonomous work, and not going in the commercial direction. That's why I appreciate the collaboration with Bildhalle.
Finally, a critical question: June 2023 has the highest global temperature ever recorded. We are overwhelmed by news reports and phenomena in our daily lives related to climate change. Your work is about the (dis)connection between humans and nature and sustainable use of materials. Are you hopeful as an artist that we can turn the tide?
No unfortunately not, for me the glass is half-empty. I find it difficult that I try to make conscious choices like travelling by train as much as possible and eating a very limited amount of meat. When people take the plane out of convenience, I feel the criticism rising, but don't dare to express it during a conversation. I do this in a subtle way in my art. Although people initially think my work is aesthetic, there is always that deeper layer that addresses social issues.
If you look at it more carefully and take your time, you can't escape the fact that your art communicates a larger socio-critical narrative. The tricky thing is that the fight against climate change depends on many factors - individuals, governments and companies - and it takes courage to address it to each other and to yourself.
And in the meantime, we just keep eating meat and flying around the world. My generation sometimes says: why should we adapt now? Then I think: we in particular should not leave this behind for our (grand)children. We are not ready yet. With my art, I want to transmit the love for nature with the underlying message: be careful with it.
Margaret Lansink, The Blue M 1, 2022, Bildhalle
‘Friction’ can be seen until 9 September 2023 at Galerie Bildhalle Amsterdam, location Willemsparkweg
