In the run-up to summer 2023, Gallery Ysebaert invites an artist with a remarkable body of work; we are pleased to introduce you to the work of Marieke Pauwels.
The title 'Vol-Ledig' originates from the comparison of the raw material and the artist being 'empty' in a certain way. The word 'empty' or 'void' can be encompassed in two ways.
In the first interpretation, emptiness is full of everything that exists around it and helps shape it, one speaks of 'full-empty'. In the second interpretation, emptiness is the condition for fullness. Without emptiness there can be no possibility of creating something new, emptiness does not exist without fullness and vice versa. Ironically, while looking for a certain 'emptiness', the work of Marieke
Pauwels is very 'full' and layered.
Marieke Pauwels frequently creates works with an erotic charge. In fact, Eros (love, lust) and Thanatos (death) are fixtures in her practice, inextricably linked. Since recently, she has been exploring the formal value of the ellipse as an erotic form on the one hand and as a perfect balance between two opposite foci on the other. Within this
also creates space for 'emptiness'.
The work 'Relics' central in the second room is based on relics derived from teeth. Traditionally, Western Europeans sacrificed wax teeth in devotion, believing their sacrifice would relieve tooth pain. Exploring forgotten rituals and legends in the folklore of various peoples, the artist juxtaposes the
abstract against the material.
Ceramic teeth have since evolved to resemble the shapes of bones, while noble porcelain has taken on an unusually rough and primitive aspect.
In the continuous interactions between her own body and the material, Marieke Pauwels strives to tease out her act as an artist. In this way, an interaction is created between the artist's body and the medium. This 'body thinking' is the catalyst for her method and her vision. It is about the pure body and pure, tangible and malleable matter.