Art for me is a safe haven where all that is withheld can be said, all that is hidden can be shown. Art can do that by looking at things in a different way, by combining things in a different way, by being different. In my art is a lot of contradiction, just as the world is ambiguous.
My artwork are difficult encounters. Encounters between social issues and emotions; aggression and compassion; intellect and senses. Often the work has a threatening undertone but with an esthetical radiation. When possible with images that linger and won’t let go.
I would like to overwhelm people on various sensorial levels. I build installations and create a new world. This world is an environment with a mix of reality and fantasy. Disorientation is often key in the perception of these worlds. There is a constant tension between material and space. Next to art installations I also create video; photographs; sound; silkscreen and performances.
For my current projects I often use plastic waste as base material. This because the ‘plastic soup’, the nature disaster in our oceans, is what I am trying to point out to people. Especially the suffocating emotions, I think life under water must have in this soup, is represented in my current work.
Working with plastic waste made me think what I could do to help prevent this problem. For this I founded STIKSOEP foundation, which spreads the plastic soup message through art and education, www.stiksoep.nl.
E-mail: info@anitawaltman.nl