Marie Hendriks was born in 1981 in the Netherlands. She studied at the Fine arts school of Bourges and later gained a film post degree at Studio Le Fresnoy. She held solo exhibition at Musée Sandelin Saint Omer (2016), le château des Adhémar, Monté- limar (2013); La Maison rouge, Paris (2010). She participated in collective exhibitions and projections at CAN Neuchatel, MACRO Rome, the Fine art Museum in Calais, Festival du documentaire Bruxelles, Festival Banditmages Bourges.
NOTE OF INTENT AND ARTISTIC APPROACH
I’ve always been telling stories. This habit comes from a family tradition. My ancestors liked to make children believe in the extraordinary. Born in the Netherlands in 1981, I grew up in the French countryside from the age of 10. My family education stayed in Dutch, my mother tong while my intellectual learning became French.
My work as a visual story telling artist circles around the central themes off false appearances, the house and the sensation off constraint, childhood wonder and fears. Often articulated around the use of video my works flourishes in many other mediums like sculpture, drawing or photography reunited in architectural installation. My work questions in particular the process of a narrative construction that immerges by playful and fictionalized associations of memories and family anecdotes. The intimate and banal statue of these stories is overruled trough the staging and the physical and emotional impact procured by the installation. The action is redeployed to an environ- ment with a spectacular scale, required for the uncanny and marvelousness. I trans- mit my stories and payout their affective tensions within the exhibition space.
I’m interested in architectures and interiors spaces that own a theatrical aspect, that show a sense of accumulation and excess. Trough out the last couple of years I’ve been interested in recreational architecture: pavilions, follies, grottos, kiosks, and seaside second houses… Those constructions are discharged of the representa- tion function and the seriousness of the permanent house. They have the particularity off showing the more fanciful aspect of the architect and the owner’s mind. Here the confusion and strangeness off shapes, colors and textures and the unlimited use of artifice are accepted. Like Les Esseintes’s house in Huysmans’s A Rebours novel, these constructions allow to forget everyday life routine and own a space that’s at
the same time a home and an elsewhere. These place that function as a marvelous escape from reality also has a more decadent aspect: one of Les Esseintes esthetic extravaganza was to ornate his turtle carapace with gold leaves and precious stones, the poor animal end up dying under the heavy weight of it.
During my first solo exhibition in Germany at the Kunstraum in Potsdam in August 2018 I became interested in the Sans souci’s park Chinese pavilion. This pavilion is the perfect example of the kind of recreational architecture that I’m keen on. Johann Gottfried Büring designed this ornamental construction between 1755 and 1764. The Maison du Trefle inspired him, this clover shaped pavilion in the Lunéville Park was imagined by Emmanuel Héré de Corny for Stanlislaw Leszsynski the former Polish king and duke of Lorraine. Embellished by the sculptures of the Swiss artist Johann Melchior Kambly, the Chinese pavilion reaches a kind of madness by the contradictory mixes between oriental influences and German Rococo ornaments. This gives it an absolute unique whimsical character.
THE STARTING POINT for Extra Ape, my Glogauair residency project focuses around three elements from the Chinese Pavillon: the golden roof figure, the wise and musician monkeys, and the ornamental statues.
A golden figure dressed in a kimono is sitting cross-legged under an oriental umbrella on the Chinese pavilion’s roof. He’s watching over the park, ruling on the pavilion like sitting on a throne. With his long beard and his imposing statue he could be a representation inspired by Confucius. One of Confucius’s learning’s says : «Look not at what is contrary to propriety; listen not to what is contrary to propriety; speak not what is contrary to propriety; make no movement which is contrary to propriety». This citation turned saying is often symbolized in the shape of the tree wise monkeys.
The Chinese pavilion shows numerous musician monkeys in its frescos and door decorations, following the XVIII century’s singerie trend. These playful and silly monkeys can be seen like funny satires of human vanity.
And finally the real life size ornamental statues’ striking presence caught my attention. On the contrary of caryatides these sculptures aren’t integrated in the architectural supporting structure, as if they use building like a pedestal.
RESIDENCY INTENTION NOTE
Extra Ape is a narrative multimedia installation that explores and stages the theme of false reflections trough singeries. I’m interested in questioning the point of view: How to shift our perception in order to see clearer? Extra Ape proposes to revisit the vanity genre with two videos and a sculpture. What would happen when a man while sitting behind his laptop, perceives himself as Confucius? When a gorilla is looking in a mirror visions himself as Ringo Star? Ans what about a mirror that always would show a greener side? The installation project aims to trick our value system in a game of unexpected twists and reversals. From the elements Extra Ape develops three works of art. The first video: “ Monkey see monkey do” is in the making, the two other works will be developed during the Berlin GlogauAIR residency.
A domestic delirium: how the passion of one man expands in space and time. 1 the video « Monkey see monkey do » shows a tiny house filled with various wise MONKEY sculptures. A long travelling plays with a shifting scale effect. Slowly we discover an OLDER MAN sitting alone in his rope at a messy desk. He’s glaring at the golden roof statue of the chinese pavillon on his computer. Looking at this image of Confucius as if it was his own mirror reflection
2: The video « Everybody’s got something to hide except me and my monkey » aims to explore the image of King Kong while altering it’s classical male and female power balance. Developed during the GlogauAIR residency this second video shows a big green monkey that see himself in the mirror like Ringo star…
He’s Sitting on a thick golden cushion inside the Sans souci Chinese pavilion in the same position as the figure on the roof. The BIG GREEN MONKEY wears huge star shaped rings on both his hands. His looking at himself in a perfectly round mirror: he’s looking pretty happy about what he sees and winks at his own reflection. The monkey lays his mirror on a turntable and switch it on. He slowly places the needle on the beginning of the track, the music starts playing while the needles marks his way and progressively scratches in the mirror engraved portrait of RINGO STAR. Suddenly a WOMAN wearing a big kimono/cape made out of psychedelic patchwork majestically approaches. She’s all green just like the monkey, She starts to sing with the vinyl record music. At that moment every green body transforms into glittery and precious matter: an absolute wonder. The characters figures disappear, submerged by rococo shininess. Their bodies become abstraction of light and colors ricochets.
The soundtrack of this video will be an original composition made ass a syntheses collage of all the Beatles Ringo Star songs, covering the particularities that make Ringo Beatles a song a Ringo song. Ringo was often playing the foolish one in the band; he was given the less serious songs, that one could listen to with a second degree.
During the residency I’ll shoot the video inside the Chinese pavilion. Last year during my residency in Potsdam, I already contacted the managers in charge of the Sansouci’s pavilion filming authorizations. I’ll write in collaboration with a author the match up text. Around these lyrics I’ll compose with a Beatle expert musician the sound track for the performed song.
3: The sculpture “The greener side” a fictional gateway towards a greener space trough the looking glass: the insatiable dream of a same but better version of everything. This sculpture that will be made during the GlogauAIR residency is vertical mirror as big as the size of a door. It will be standing in between the two videos. Swafs of flowers, fruits, birds and monkeys form it’s rococo frame. The mirror is tinted and has a deep dark green reflection. The partnership with the BBK ceramic and woodshop studio will enable the production of “the Greener Side”