Marguerite van Boetzelaer

Marguerite van Boetzelaer featured image

About

Marguerite is a Print MA student at the RCA and an interdisciplinary visual artist with a background in physio-philosophy. The work is subject to fugitive forces that have an impenetrable logic. At once echoing the ethereal world whilst retaining a strong somatic presence. Intrigued by the pursuit of shadows in order to create an impersonal story with a hint of humour, the work has references of the surreal, in which the use of line explores traveling through space, like thread weaving and penetrating through air, finding walls at different angles, bursting into various forms.


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Degree Details

Statement

Inspired by movement, the work collects fragments of the figure, from drawings to installations, sound, photography, moving image, plaster casts, textiles and painting. The outcome of many expressions ends up being a spontaneous process of an installation, using Print in the broadest sense of the word.

Monophony

Monophony — A collaboration of RCM students and RCA students. Inspired by Dora Maar’s wonderful series of stills, Fritz Lang’s use of light and shadow and guided by Bach's solo piece of music with some more minor keys, I made a series of short films of the surreal, shadow like figures in motion, juxtaposed with the figure and subject. A series of stills and moving images were taken in the studio to capture moving shadows. The short clip shows an introduction to a longer film.
Monophonics — This is a clip of a longer film of abstraction of a performance of various instruments at play, entangled with elements of the instruments in close focus. Bits of strings, brass, copper and wood in abstraction and incoherence, yet the 1 theme of music, monophony, is the red thread which connects it all.
Monophony series 1
Monophony series 1 — Polaroid still of shadows in movement.
Sea-phonics — Another short clip of the short film I did in a documentary style and a surreal like manor, to illustrate how many thoughts can be led or accompanied by music in our minds. Does it encourage mindfulness or is it merely an 'earworm'.

Medium: series of stills and moving image with sound

Size: 0:09 clip

The chair

Ghost chair
Ghost chair — The chair to me is the hub of a story, like van Gogh's chair, it appears prosaic yet personal, and tells a story of the past and present of personal kind. A chair is full of opposites, it describes loss yet it invites someone to come and relax. A chair says something about the person and is therefore comparable to a person in my depiction of an arm cast. A rusty chair with old knitted wire held by delicate white hand and arm, ethereal with stillness.
The chair in phonics
The chair in phonics — Sculpture of a metal framed chair with elements of music and the figure as its frame. Death-like black touching a woven scenario in soft threads of movements of life, polarities at play.

Medium: Sculpture

Presence & Absence

Presence & Absence
Presence & Absence — A series of digital images printed on a sheet of acetate paper, mounted away from the wall to encourage 'reflections' of the scenes depicted. A scene of figures reaching out to one another, moving, prevented by the physical frames and borders. In reference to our 'lock-down' times where physical contact proved to be invaluable. Exploring Opacity like Duchamps Labyrinth of threads, it is my link of threads, stitching and weaving and the quality of opacity that appears in the work.
Presence & Absence
Presence & Absence — A scene of figures reaching out to one another prevented by the physical frames and borders. In reference to our 'lock-down' times where contact proved to be invaluable.
Presence & Absence
Presence & Absence — A scene of figures reaching out to one another prevented by the physical frames and borders. In reference to our 'lock-down' times where contact proved to be invaluable.
Presence & Absence
Presence & Absence — A full length scene of figures reaching out to one another prevented by the physical frames and borders. In reference to our 'lock-down' times where contact proved to be invaluable. As the work reaches the ground shards of printed perspex fall to the ground and become objects with images, instead of subjects.

Medium: Digital print on acetate and perspex

Size: 1 meter x 2 meter

Handapparitions

Handapparitions
Handapparitions — A print of hand shadows in colour, taking form into the ethereal, bound together by a stitched silver thread .
threaded apparitions
threaded apparitions — Woven threads coming together to appear as this form, a form of a figure who occasionally is recognised to play an instrument. Exploring form and formless. What makes us see a form and not hundreds of little threads. Like life's exploration of hands and contact
phonic traces
phonic traces — Part of these 'Apparation' series is the exploration of form and how much we need to see before we can see. Embossing is visible again due to light and dark, shadows once again dominate this work.
phonic traces 2
phonic traces 2 — Part of these 'Apparation' series is the exploration of form and how much we need to see before we can see. Embossing is visible again due to light and dark, shadows once again dominate this work.

Medium: Mixed Media

Core-set

Corsaged
Corsaged — Inspired by Louise Bourgeois' female figure, thread, wire suspended, an expression of the psyche; the seemingly effortless floating state depicts the desire to be free. Unlike horizontality where the body appears to be heavy, asleep and about to give up.
Suspended Corsage
Suspended Corsage — Inspired by Louise Bourgeois' female figure, thread, wire suspended, an expression of the psyche; the seemingly effortless floating state depicts the desire to be free. Unlike horizontality where the body appears to be heavy, asleep and about to give up.
Strung Corset
Strung Corset — A 2D version of the 'core-set' theme, where the musical strings that evoke sound resemble the ribcage and the piano hammers, the spine. An impression of our core of effortless musical nature.
Piano-strings
Piano-strings — Exploring the piano like a female figure, depicting the inner turmoil of threads, forces, strings held together by the garment, the seemingly effortless floating silky corset depicting Aphrodite's song.

Medium: mixed media

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