Artprojects von Liesbeth van Ginneken

Review: ART-Magazine What’s up nr. 6 | 2010

Liesbeth van Ginneken’s motifs bursting through

By Fred Balvert

The huge conference table in Liesbeth van Ginneken’s workspace brings Going Dutch to mind, the project in which she enticed CEOs of multinationals to exhibit large-scale reproductions of art works from the corporate collections as cultural statements on the façades of no-nonsense buildings in Rotterdam. Seated at this table, as a genuine developer, she discussed this project, which was executed on the occasion of Rotterdam cultural capital of Europe 2001. Van Ginneken is a versatile artist who realizes unique works of art with vigour and focus. Kunststukjes [Art Pieces] (1997) consists of an edition of king-size memory games depicting art works by 32 visual artists from Rotterdam. The game was distributed among over two thousand classes of primary schools in Rotterdam, and as a bonus to schools on the Netherlands Antilles and in Rumania. Art education experts could likely not have thought of a more effective method to introduce children to art.

Conversation
These same Art Pieces helped her to enter into a conversation on art with young children in the Schilderswijk district in The Hague and with a wide range of autistic adolescents in Oegstgeest. For both locations she was recently commissioned to design a public work of art. The children from The Hague provided inspiration through their drawings: hearts, flowers, letters, a camel, and a little fellow with an umbrella. She converted these drawings into counting patterns, embroidering them in bright colours with synthetic ship rope on the mesh fence of the containers in which the playground equipment was stored.
From the Oegstgeest adolescents she learnt to reduce figurative forms to a universal simplicity appreciated by the target group. This led to a balanced composition milled into the brick walls of the school and subsequently filled with mildly contrasting cement, a charming nod to Henry Moore’s monumental work on the façade of the Bouwcentrum [building centre] on Weena.
These are socially engaged works that are embraced lovingly, a fact also learnt by the miscreant who set fire to the ropes in Schilderswijk with his lighter. But Van Ginneken is too well aware of the fact that life leaves traces to replace the melted stitches. As far as she is concerned, the vandal has made a lasting contribution to the work, as did the elderly woman with the headscarf who wanted to help her embroider the ropes.

Outside the picture
It takes more than one look to discover the connection to Van Ginneken’s paintings, which have formed a world on its own for twenty years: images that seem almost nostalgic in today’s reality, in which relationships are casual and superficial and the realm of intimacy and sexuality has been invaded by intrusive advertising.
Her paintings refer to tender and timeless moments; elusive moments of vulnerability that are becoming more and more rare, maybe because of this. The situations depicted testify discreetly to what could be taking place outside the picture. A coat, thoughtlessly thrown over a chair, kicked out pumps, an empty unmade bed after a mysterious night, a cradle waiting so patiently that the wooden strips of the construction have sprouted into beautifully blooming flowers.
All this is interlarded with elaborate motifs derived from lace and linen from times when labour was cheaper than materials: lambs, flowers, and teddy bears. Using a patient, restrained technique, the oil paint is applied pastily to the canvas, so lavishly at times that the flowers become small sculptures, resembling casts of real flowers – like vain attempts to recreate a world that is no longer there, and wrest its meanings from oblivion.

More information: http://www.liesbethvanginneken.com/en/cv/specialeProjecten.html