Mom’s Body as a Vehicle for Narratives
M O M’ S    B O D Y    A S    A   V E H I C L E    F O R    N A R R A T I V E S
 
A   C O L L E C T I O N   O F   S M A L L   T A L E S
 

Analysing and Re-appropriating Dad’s Snapshots. The installation Mom’s Body as a Vehicle for Narratives derived from analysing and selecting similar patterns in my family photo albums. These albums contain mainly snapshots taken by my Dad, (mostly) of my Mom, over a period of two to three decades.

The emphasis is not on aesthetics, it is a personal and authentic documentation of many vacations, and daily life happenings, set in a liberal western culture. The significance for showcasing this personal project is to display a basic story of love and admiration, yet it also exhibits universal themes such as social frame works, banalities, old fashioned stereotypes, and at times a hint of bittersweet lonesomeness.

These narratives would remain invisible within the context of the family albums. As part of an installation the photos shift in concept from individual to collective memories. New connotations surface by juxtaposing and combining photos of different origins, or by extracting an image out of its original context.

This entire body of work is drawn from a general interest in pattern seeking, cultural/collective memory, psychology, morphology and modern dance.

This lead me to analyzing:

Human Interactions
Body-movement/Placement
Body language/Facial expressions (awareness of the camera).

My starting point for the photo albums was establishing main genres. I ended up with five in total:

MOM AND OBJECTS
MOM AND CONNOTATIONS
MOM AND NON VERBAL COMMUNICATION
MOM AND ANATOMY
MOM PERFORMING ACTIONS

Forty+ categories were born out of the five genres, a couple are listed below in random order:

MOM (IN SUPPOSED UNINTENDED) SHOTS OF HER CROTCH
MOM COPYCATTING POSTURES OUT OF FAMOUS PAINTINGS
MOM NAKED IN RANDOM CIRCUMSTANCES
MOM WITH -DO NOT ENTER- TRAFFIC SIGNS ABOVE HER HEAD
MOM’S NAKEDNESS CONVENIENTLY HIDDEN
MOM WITH PHALLIC SYMBOLS SURROUNDING HER
MOM WITH SCISSORS IN HER MOUTH
MOM CUTTING STUFF UP
MOM IN THE VOID
MOM…LOST IN THIS WORLD

Some categories are rather factual determinations, for instance MOM EATING. Others have a more subjective or judgemental value (or funny connotation) to them, like MOM AND -DO NOT ENTER-TRAFFIC SIGNS ABOVE HER HEAD. The full installation part of this project consists of about 135 Baryta prints, size 9×13 cm each.

The undertone of Mom’s Body as a Vehicle for Narratives is figuring out a bit of an unconventional relationship between my parents, and how that has shaped me…

Home Sweet Home Series

Mardoe Painter Home Sweet Home Series

by Diana Wind: Art Historian and Curator of Museum Rijswijk

At first glance, the frail images by Mardoe Painter (Doesburg, The Netherlands, 1971) seem serene, but upon closer inspection they scream in silence. The series HOME SWEET HOME was made with 200g acid-free Fabriano paper to create an image in relief, by pricking through, indenting and bruising the paper from the back. The quiet picture that emerges is brought to life by light falling on its surface.

Mardoe Painter opted for this technique not solely to satisfy her monochromatic aesthetic or to play with light and shadow. The technique is also effective in conjuring up the connotations that she feels are appropriate in perforating the material: penetration, sublimation, permanent porosity, stigmatization, but also breathing space, freedom and disclosure. The Instinctive, hand-driven punctures into the paper are forever, just as the damage to a mental state, whether individual or collective. Everyone carries invisible baggage through daily life. Here, quite literally, an inner world is visibly perforated (she also calls it drilled) through the paper by savage mistreatment. The paper also acts as a skin that allows itself to be manipulated.

Her technique and choice of material suit what lies at the heart of the series HOME SWEET HOME. Painter researched post-traumatic stress disorder among veterans the works subtitle is post-traumatic stress disorder among veterans. The work’s subtitle is: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Military Veterans. The Grant Disillusion of a Sweet Homecoming. It is based on the stories told by soldiers who, as often transpires after returning home, suffer from all they have seen and experienced in war zones. Once home, their lives take a turn: relationships deteriorate, divorce happens, and there can even be (temporary) homelessness. The constant stress and adrenaline coursing through their veins can lead to drug and alcohol abuse. The nights are apparently the hardest. It’s when they are most vulnerable, and actual sleep rarely comes.

For HOME SWEET HOME Painter developed her own symbolism, one that befits the subject matter and is open to double meanings. The titles give a clue to the meanings: (In)Fertile Grounds, So, What’s for Dinner, The Puppeteer. Items that belong to war, such as a helmet, military rucksack and gasmask, referred to temporary shelter (protection when worn), flight (never being able to return home), fear and anxiety. Mushrooms and poppies refer to addiction, but also decline and a short life. Various (nocturnal) animals are depicted such as Birds (a stork), rats, chickens  a monkey’s skull and a jellyfish – symbols for freedom, fertility, renewal, sacrifice, anonymity or insomnia. The meanings of the symbols are not fixed by Mardoe Painter; the titles give the viewer plenty of room to interpret for themselves.

In Mardoe’s visual work I see a cool and collected observer or researcher of the specimens.’ Todd Slaughter, Professor Department of Art, Ohio State University

About my visual work: I create with a spontaneous and instinctual approach, which in a sense is giving me access into myself. It is like having a collision occur between the known and the subconscious. My artistic drive is a personal effort to gain some amount of control over uncontrollable situations.

Stains and Morphology

The first time I can remember being visually triggered, I was about five years old. When visiting churches on holiday with my family, I discovered Jesus on the Cross with blood markings on his body. Although I was not brought up religious, I still remember being in awe of crucifixes. I suppose aesthetic awakening would be a suitable term.

Later in life I’d noticed that on the various depictions of him the bloodstains never seemed to have the same size, consistency or colour. Also in sculptures and paintings his body varied in size and shape, ranging from tall and ultra-lean to short and a little chubby. Some depictions held a Majestic Grandeur, especially sculptures, while other representations emphasized humanity and weakness. Early on, these disruptions in pattern seeking of the same subject matter sparked me visually.

Remnants

When I was of school age, I was fascinated by an illustration drawn by Jan Verburg in my favourite (children’s) book Tom Tippelaar. One image portrayed an abruptly abandoned breakfast table. The cups, plates and other remnants were left in varying states: a dirty knife, crumbs on the table, eggshells, and a half emptied bottle of milk. Flies and birds were cleaning up remnants of the table. This vanitas type still life created a certain gut feeling in me; to produce my own narratives about absence, the unknown, stillness, time, disruption and hope.

In my early teens I collected tea stains from used teabags, randomly left on the daily newspapers I saved from the family breakfast table. The amount of water, the temperature, brewing time, brand- and sort of tea, the surface underneath the newspaper… It all made a difference in what kind of amber stain the used teabags would leave behind.

This, from a family perspective, futile urge of accumulative collecting, gave me great joy. It was the expectation of a certain constant, yet still every amber tea stain held an uniqueness. The outcome was out of my hands.

Structures

The constant changing shapes of nature, to me are a vast and humble reminder of the fleeting transitions in life. My work is a study of the process where physical structures become remnants of their original form. With the use of my own drawings or (found) photographs as a starting point, I begin working. While working I disappear into my personal parallel universe. Getting lost for a while.

My work explores universal themes, social frame works, physical structures, banalities and stereotypes.

M A R D O E   P A I N T E R

 

1996-1998. Master of Fine Arts. Ohio State University, Department of Art, Columbus Ohio, USA.      

1992-1996. Bachelor of Fine Arts. Interdisciplinary: Academy Minerva, Groningen, The Netherlands.

 

Member of Professional Dutch Photographers Association GKf (www.dupho.nl/platforms/gkf)

Member of Amsterdam based Professional Artist Association ARTI ET AMICITIAE (www.arti.nl)

 

SELECTION OF EXHIBITIONS  2009-2024:

 

2021/22 - Arti et Amicitiae. SALON 2021/22. Rokin, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

2021/22 - Arti et Amicitiae. Four Seasons, Rokin, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

2021 - Rietveldpaviljoen Ronspectieft, Amersfoort, The Netherlands.

2020/21 - Arti et Amicitiae. SALON 2020/21. Rokin, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

2020/21 - Museum De Wieger. Part of a Retrospective Collection of the van de Haterd family, in Deurne, The Netherlands.

2020 - Museum Rijswijk Paper Biennial, Rijswijk, The Netherlands.

2020 - Arti et Amicitiae. SALON 2020. Rokin, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

2019 - Arti et Amicitiae. SALON 2019. Rokin, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

2019 - Arti et Amicitiae. Art & Society. Rokin, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

2019 - Museum de Fundatie. Zomerexpo ‘EUROPA’, The Netherlands.

2019 - Arti et Amicitiae. Salon Arti. Rokin, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

2018 - Galerie Fotostad, Amersfoort (foto Biënnale), The Netherlands..

2018 - Arti et Amicitiae. Salon Arti. Rokin, Amsterdam, The Netherlands..

2018 - Arti et Amicitiae. Salon Arti. Rokin, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.. 

2017 - Arti et Amicitiae. Salon Arti. Rokin, Amsterdam, The Netherlands..

2016 - Arti et Amicitiae. Salon Arti. Rokin, Amsterdam, The Netherlands..

2016 - Aegtenkapel. Amersfoort (Photo Biënnial), The Netherlands..

2015 - Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. Zomerexpo ‘WOEST’.  

2015 - Arti et Amicitiae. Salon Arti 175 jaar. Rokin, Amsterdam.  

2014 - Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. Zomerexpo ‘LICHT’, The Netherlands..  

2014 - Arti et Amicitiae. Salon. Rokin, Amsterdam, The Netherlands..   

2013 - Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. Zomerexpo ‘AARDE’, The Netherlands..  

2013 - Arti et Amicitiae. Salon 2012. Rokin, Amsterdam, The Netherlands..  

2012 - Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. Zomerexpo ‘LIEFDE’.  

2012 - Arti et Amicitiae. Group Show. Rokin, Amsterdam, The Netherlands..  

2012 - Stads Galerij. Trio exhibition with, Astrid Hermes & Ilse Leenders. Amersfoort (GRID Biënnial), The Netherlands.  

2012 - Aegtenkapel. Amersfoort (GRID Biënnial), The Netherlands..  

2012 - ‘Amuse’ Collective Memories Het Gasthuys (Solo) Preview GRID Biënnial, Amersfoort, The Netherlands..  

2012 - Paradiso Amsterdam. Women in Paradise, Paradiso. Femina Illuminata (Projected work) , The Netherlands..              

2012 - Arti et Amicitiae. Salon 2012. Rokin, Amsterdam, The Netherlands..  

2011 - Arti et Amicitiae. Salon 2011. Rokin, Amsterdam, The Netherlands..  

2011 - Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. Zomerexpo ‘ANONIEM GEKOZEN’, The Netherlands..  

2011 - ‘Dutch Delight’ New York Photo Festival. NewYork City. U.S.A.  

2010-2011 - Arti et Amicitiae. Salon 2010. Rokin, Amsterdam, The Netherlands..  

2009 - Arti et Amicitiae. Salon 2009. Rokin, Amsterdam, The Netherlands..  

2009 - Flehite Museum. Amersfoort. Exhibition ‘Zonen en Dochters van Amersfoort’. Works purchased by Gemeente Amersfoort & Museum Flehite, Amersfoort, The Netherlands..                                          

2009 - Arti et Amicitiae. New Member Exhibition. Rokin, Amsterdam, The Netherlands..