Über mich
Bei einem Strandurlaub im Alter von etwa 12 Jahren baute ich, dem Beispiel meiner spanischen Freundinnen folgend, eine Art Laufsteg aus großen, flachen Steinen, der den für die Füße so schmerzhaften Weg vom Liegehandtuch über die kleinen Kieselsteine zum Meer erleichtern sollte. Anfangs sahen die Bauten meiner Freundinnen viel schöner aus als meine Baustelle. Ihre Blicke verrieten mir, dass Sie nicht zu verstehen schienen, was ich dort tat. Ich selbst wusste es übrigens auch nicht. Schließlich ging dann aber alles ganz schnell und aus dem scheinbaren Chaos entstand durch das Legen der letzten Steine eine schöne und stabile Treppe. Mir war während des Bauens nicht klar, dass ich eine Treppe und keinen Steg baute. Ich arbeitete einfach vor mich hin und es gab viele Korrekturen. Meine beste Freundin fasste es damals in einem Satz zusammen: Am Anfang hattest du den schlechtesten Weg, doch jetzt ist es der beste geworden. Eine Schlüsselsituation für die Art, wie ich meinen künstlerischen Weg gehe. Immer gibt es viele Fehler und Korrekturen und oft sind es eben die Korrekturen und das Kitten der zerstörten Stellen, die dem Werk erst Leben, Bedeutung und Zeit einhauchen. Der Antrieb für mein künstlerisches Arbeiten kommt aus eben aus dieser Ecke. Es ist im Grunde ein gestaltendes Reparieren, das sich durch meine Arbeiten zieht.
Suzanne van Rissenbeck
English:
During a beach holiday at the age of about 12 years I built, following the example of my Spanish friends, a kind of catwalk out of big, flat stones, which should facilitate the way from our beach towels crossing the small hurting pebbles over to to the sea. In the beginning the creations of my friends looked much better than mine. Their looks told me that they didn’t seem to understand what I was doing there. I didn’t know it myself, by the way. Finally everything went very fast and out of the apparent chaos, a beautiful and stable staircase was created by laying the last stones. It was not clear to me during the construction itself that I was building a staircase and not a footbridge. I just worked on, doing many corrections. My best friend summed it up in one sentence: In the beginning you made the worst, but suddenly it has become the best one. A key situation for the way I walk my artistic path!
There are always many mistakes and corrections and it actually is those corrections and the repairing of the those destroyed parts that give life, meaning and time into the work. The drive for my artistic work emerges from that source. It is basically a creative repairing process that guides me through my work.
During a beach holiday at the age of about 12 years I built, following the example of my Spanish friends, a kind of catwalk out of big, flat stones, which should facilitate the way from our beach towels crossing the small hurting pebbles over to to the sea. In the beginning the creations of my friends looked much better than mine. Their looks told me that they didn’t seem to understand what I was doing there. I didn’t know it myself, by the way. Finally everything went very fast and out of the apparent chaos, a beautiful and stable staircase was created by laying the last stones. It was not clear to me during the construction itself that I was building a staircase and not a footbridge. I just worked on, doing many corrections. My best friend summed it up in one sentence: In the beginning you made the worst, but suddenly it has become the best one. A key situation for the way I walk my artistic path!
There are always many mistakes and corrections and it actually is those corrections and the repairing of the those destroyed parts that give life, meaning and time into the work. The drive for my artistic work emerges from that source. It is basically a creative repairing process that guides me through my work.
In other words:
In my artistic practice I combine different elements and influences of former and current disciplines as painting, sculpting, drawing, sketching and photography. Poetry is also an important essence and a connecting element for my artwork. I follow internal as well as external impulses arising from processing and understanding the perception of experiences in life. There is always trial and error and especially my aim to repair those errors allows the artwork to become alive, to breathe in time; to finally matter. I call it formative repairing.
Suzanne van Rissenbeck