03 december 2024, Wouter van den Eijkel
Jacquie Maria Wessels at Fontana / EXPLORING THE FIELDS
In the backroom of Galerie Fontana, six silk cloths flutter. They are printed with a photograph of an old tree. “When you’ve been to a beautiful place and later think back on it, you’re left with only an afterimage. You no longer see the full picture in sharp detail,” says Jacquie Maria Wessels, who found the images for her Memory Masters series all over the world. The trees represent a kind of memory of that place, while the fluttering silk emphasises the fleeting nature of memories.
We should be grateful that Wessels has captured with her camera a world that is gradually disappearing: the world of the car garage. Wessels’ interest in this subject was sparked during one of the repairs to her old Ford Courier. The garage in Amsterdam-West where she took her car was pristine and spotless—there was no oil or grease in sight. When the mechanic handed over the business to a family member, the garage gradually transformed. Each time Wessels visited, it became more chaotic and messier, and thus more personal.
Jacquie Maria Wessels, #10, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2014, Galerie Fontana
One day, the clutch on her Ford broke. After the mechanic showed Wessels the grooves in the old clutch plates, it dawned on her that these worn-out plates would make an excellent subject for a still life. Back home, she called the garage to ask if she could photograph them. They agreed—the garage even had a few hundred discarded ones lying around. “Taking them to my studio was a bit inconvenient, so I asked if I could the photos there instead.”
Thus began the Garage Stills series, which she worked on for around 10 years. The still lifes were composed of various objects she encountered in the garages: gaskets, rings, cables, horns and tools. Naturally, she also photographed the cars being worked on or repainted, as well as the interiors of the garages.
She initially worked in the Netherlands, creating pieces such as a still life with five car horns and a picture of a steel box containing various black and brass-coloured gaskets and ball bearings. The brass gleams against the crimson box.
Jacquie Maria Wessels, #03, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2015, Galerie Fontana
She then visited similar garages across Europe. “I always try to incorporate something of the local culture into my still lifes.” In Naples, for example, Wessels photographed the wall of an office with an old Pirelli calendar and yellowed devotional card of Padre Pio. Later, the project also took her to Morocco, Turkey, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Japan. “In Tokyo, I noticed that the street furniture was brightly coloured. Trash bins were pale yellow and train tickets were neon pink. Here, such items are more subdued in colour.” These bright colours reappear in a still life she made of a stack of rubber rings in Tokyo.
Sometimes, coincidence plays a role. Such as Wessels’ Amsterdam garage transformed out of step with the latest trends. Car garages increasingly resemble laboratories. Because modern cars contain more computers, chips and electronics, there is less tinkering to be done, making garages less chaotic, more clinical and less personal. Wessels discovered this when she wanted to send a thank-you copy of her book Garage Stills & Fringe Nature to the garages. Quite a few of them had already closed their doors.
Jacquie Maria Wessels, #10, Istanbul, Turkey, 2016, Galerie Fontana
As a result, Garage Stills can be considered a series of still lifes documenting a disappearing craft and the kind of workspace where chaos said something about the people who worked there. A world of nuts and bolts, oil and grease, grimy offices and regulars dropping by for a chat—but, above all, a world dominated by men. Wessels was often the only woman in the garage. This makes Garage Stills a fitting farewell, captured with an analogue large-format camera.
At Fontana, works from the Fringe Nature series are also on display, a series that grew out of Garage Stills. In the serene scenes of plants and flowers, the garages seem a world away. But nothing could be further from the truth, as Wessels took the pictures near the garages when she went outside for some fresh air. The proximity of the garages can be seen in some of the works, where hexagonal red spots—car taillights—are visible.
Jacquie Maria Wessels, Fringe Nature #07, Agia Triada, Greece, 2022, Galerie Fontana
Inconspicuously conspicuous
The tension between natural and industrial environments is further explored in Wessels’ newest series, Dubious Appeal. Here, too, we see flowers and plants, but among them are also pieces of plastic packaging—baby wipe wrappers, bottle caps. Sometimes they are indistinguishable from nature, like the caps, while at other times they appear as blurry rectangular shapes that enhance the composition. “The idea behind the series is that flowers have a certain appeal. Packaging materials also have that, with their colours often referencing nature. That’s why I’ve subtly and intentionally included them.”
Exploring the Fields by Jacquie Maria Wessels can be seen at Galerie Fontana in Amsterdam until 25 January 2025.
Jacquie Maria Wessels, Fringe Nature #12, Sri Lanka, 2017, Galerie Fontana
