Tjitske Oosterholt’s (1991) practice is rooted in an intuitive and experimental interaction with matter, in which craftsmanship and the innovative use of photographic techniques play a central role. In her work she’s interested in the transience of our natural world, and how we as human beings relate to, experience and perceive this. As we ourselves are part of the natural world, she examines the way in which we interact with our surroundings and make sense of this ever-changing world around us.
The series ‘A Continual Unfolding’ is an exploration of the uncontrollable, of giving in to the unknown and an openness to whatever is unfolding before us. The desire we have to control our surroundings, and how on the contrary this leads to a disconnection with our natural world, has been a starting point in seeking ways of opening up to a more intuitive interaction with our environment, in which we find beauty in the unexpected. By working with Polaroid photographs, with its inherently mysterious character and often unpredictable outcome, Oosterholt allows herself to be guided by the direction the material wants to take, and to find ways of surrendering to this uncertainty.
Through constructing collages out of photographic material, Oosterholt creates scenes that resemble landscapes, and the formation and disruption of natural phenomena. The final artwork is the coming together of several unique Polaroid photographs, every single one distorted in such a way that there is no image left, and only the internal materials of the Polaroid photographs remain, resulting in many small chemical landscapes of their own.