Hello Dear Inge Prins van Wijngaarden. Thank you for giving us the chance to Interview with you. Our first question is how the “Covid-19” affects your art?
Thank you for your interest in my development and work. The Corona crisis has greatly influenced my work. At first I was off balance. As an artist I wanted to contribute to the appreciation of vital workers. That is how I came up with the idea to start an initiative together with the SeeYou@Art foundation and Online Gallery.Art in which vital workers could be nominated for a work of art. In this way, more than 100 vital workers have been thanked in a creative way with a work of art. Wonderful collaboration with a beautiful result. In addition, due to the lock down, I had extra time for my visual work and the research that it requires. Because of and few stimuli I was able to focus enormously, so that various processes went much better and faster.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what drove you to choose art as a career?
t the age of 17 I went to live on my own in Amsterdam and I followed and completed an education at The Graphic Lyceum. After that I worked in education for many years. To stay healthy I need to design and create. My life is better in balance now. Besides art, I occasionally do assignments as an independent entrepreneur. In fact, it's more to accurate to state that art chose me.
What is your creative process like? How has your style changed over the years?
I started with figurative painting, especially flowers, trees and vistas.
Because I didn't think much of my work at first, it felt like wasting a lot of material. I had al-ready opted for water mixable oil paint and continued investigating recycled materials. At first I glued pieces of cardboard to the wall and painted on them. Later I taught myself how to make canvases from cardboard. By frequently working with this material, the material challenged me to also use it in other creative ways. It prompted me in a natural way to ab-stract my work. Thematically, I occasionally still make figurative work, but in the process I'm in now, I'm inspired and guided by the material and the inspiration I get from it.
Besides painting techniques I am also interested in craft techniques and haberdashery. Through extensive material research I keep coming up with ideas for new series.
The corrugated cardboard has challenged me and I started researching how I could make wall hangings out of it. First from the ribbed structure and later with the construction of a patchwork. There are different phases in between.
I also researched how to use haberdashery and forgotten arts and crafts techniques in the visual arts. I am often triggered by a current world theme. For example the series 'restricted'.
What was the most challenging project that you worked on and why?
After researching how to sustainably process corrugated cardboard and use it in the visual arts. I really wanted to expose its pure raw form.
I had already made designs for the ZERO waste series. The implementation was quite a quest. Ultimately, I succeeded in impregnating the works in such a way that they are dura-ble, and look pure.
For me, A work of art is successful when people are surprised by it and it gets them thinking: “What am I looking at now?”
We want to talk about the “ZERO waste” Project of yours. Can you tell us more about your “Sustainable art” ?
For me, sustainability is something you can't impose, but something that you can use to inspire. There is so much material around us that we take for granted. With the ZERO waste series I hope to inspire people to start thinking about the materials they use out of habit. And to make more sustainable choices. The series confuses the viewer and triggers him to think about what he is looking at. With the series ZERO waste I was able to exhibit alongside Monika Buch at Bos Fine Art in The Hague. Due to the success and the combination of our work, the works can now also be seen in Utrecht. Bos Fine Art has opened a second location here in a building designed by architect Gerrit Rietveld. A wonderful combination!
What's your tip or best way you maintain a live/work balance? Do you struggle with it?
hen do you know you're lacking balance? I'm not the right person to give other people tips about this. For me, the balance between life and work has always been a challenge. Actually, I'm always working, I watch, observe and save. These observations and material research always take me one step further in my development.
An hour of executive work is not feasible for me. I can completely immerse myself in what I'm doing and enjoy working all day in the Atelier the most. I do not take my computer with me to the studio. And my phone is in silent mode.
We see a touch of fashion in your “ButtON/OFF” collection. Are you interested in fashion, and can you share the details of this series with us?
Certainly I am crazy about beautiful clothes and good design. History has proven that it pays to invest in strong designs. In addition, a good design deserves to be made or repaired. This work translates those thoughts. I have worked with knots in many different forms, but each time I was not satisfied with the result. When I actually wanted to throw in the towel, I still had a lot of recycled buttons left. In an unguarded moment I thought what if I assemble them all on a plate and then see what happens….. I immediately saw that this was the translation and the image that I was looking for. Techni-cally it wasn't good enough but the series 'FAST fashion becomes SLOW art' was born.
Curator Maud Oonk wrote the following about this series: Curator Maud Oonk , Exhibition SeeYou@ART Amsterdam: Inge plays with what you can see in accidentally created forms. This is what you call pareidolia. A form of illusion in which you think you perceive recognizable things. A wellknown example is seeing a face in the moon. With the colors harmony and structure in her work, she reinforces the illusion that the shapes 'mean something'. With the knotting work she also plays with what you think what 'should'. Buttons belong to a blouse or jeans, but by combining hundreds of buttons, a new image is created. If you stare at it any longer, you forget even the function of the knots and it becomes an image in itself.
What are you working on at the moment?
The series ZERO waste still keeps me busy. There are still so many possibilities. I also have ideas for making 3-demensional work in a form that matches the ZERO waste series. In addition, I am working towards a solo & group exhibition in ‘kasteel Groeneveld’ in 2023. For the solo exhibition I will be working on one of the targets of the state forest management: keeping the Dutch forests healthy. In the simultaneous group exhibition with a number of artists from the artist collective 'the Movement', we will show work that adheres to the themes of Dutch Nature and sustainability.
Anything else you'd like to mention that I didn't ask?
No, I do not think so. ’Feel free and think outside the box!’
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