"bruidsmeisjes", objecten van M. Schlebusch
           in Galerie Veldhunten                 foto: Theo Kock

Schlebusch lifts a corner of the veil in retrospective

All her objects relate to elementary feelings. In Marijke Schlebusch’s work you can’t help suspecting a meaning in disguise. The Gruitpoort in Doetinchem shows a retrospective of her work.
By MARTIN LACET
Eightteen years ago, in the former Gruitpoort, Marijke Schlebusch for the first time showed some objects on square columns mounted with lead.
This was in the scope of Nieuw Jaar Nieuw Werk, an annual art fair for recently graduated artists from the region.
Schlebusch was present with her graduation work made at the AKI in Enschede. Now once more this work is exhibited in the Gruitpoort Gallery. They are small statues made of wood, sponge, old iron, some of them readymades like a mouse’s treadmill but with a fox depicted in it instead. These little statues are still rather object-oriented and focused on shape.
Now, eightteen years later something very different appears. Her most recent work has a German title: ‘Fernwärme’, two helmets from Russian St Petersburg are placed on high rafters. They look like guards, and behind them glows a faint light. Warmth from afar. This is typical for the artist from ’s-Heerenberg. Whether it’s an object, tiny or huge, a statue, an installation or an arranged space, every piece of work suggests a statement, sometimes very direct, sometimes mysterious or metaforic and sometimes even totally inscrutable. In the middle of the exhibition space stands Le Rouge, an object draped in red velvet, pleasing both the eyes and fingers. It evokes the image of a split gateway in a Bali temple complex.
Or what to say about the two black velvet Le Noir ‘columns’? They seem untouchable, alsmost sinister. Several objects refer to religion and spirituality. At the entrance the visitor has to genuflect in respect to see all the Saints portraits mirrored in a rack. Charasteristic for all her smaller pieces is their vulnerability. Moving are her ceramic Babytorses, wrapped in cloths; touching, the dark mummies, marked with crosses.
Sometimes there is a sly hint towards eroticism, but always with a symbolic undertone. Take for example The Bridesmaids, half-veiled balls of Spanish grass wobbling on copperwire. They represent youth, freshness, high expectation, but by equiping them with plastic nipples you cannot help but think of women’s breasts.
This retrospective of eightteen years of Schlebusch’s art is almost a contemplative journey through her work. The objects together form a poem. There is a lot to read between the lines.
But above all there is this sacred serenity surrounding her statues.

Friday, November 10, 2006, DE GELDERLANDER