Title:The third passage
Solo exhibition: Annabelle Schatteman
Duration: 11.01.2024 to 11.10.2024
Opening hours: 13:00 - 17:00
Opening: 11.01.2024 - 6:00 PM
Finissage: 11.10.2024 - 6:00 PM
Curated by: Catelijne Boele
About: The solo exhibition of Annabelle Schatteman, titled ‘The Third Passage’, encompasses a personal journey through the subsequent stage of female existence – a chapter that is connected to menopause. The exhibition is an ode to the blood that is no longer present and a farewell that clears the way for the next phase of life.
Annabelle Schatteman intuitively explores the transformation of femininity and allows it to take form in an extensive landscape of sculpted flowers, shells, and mythological figures. These embody the beauty and stillness of life and motherhood, but also the fear of change and transience. With an energy that is both explosive and focused, Schatteman expresses the emotion and complexity of ageing, as well as its strength and depth. Flowers like lilies, poppies, and amaryllis bleed and wilt within her work, symbolising the wounds and pain that grow alongside saying goodbye. The sculptural still lifes paradoxically embrace the inevitable change that life brings. Schatteman makes the transition from heaviness to lightness palpable through the movement she captures in her powerful and fleeting sculptural handwriting. In her work, she seeks a new harmony with life within her restlessness, which only becomes tangible after experiencing the pain of farewell.
“The woman who is willing to make that change must become pregnant with herself, at last. She must bear herself, her third self, her old age.” – Ursula K. Le Guin
"Artist Bio: Annabelle Schatteman is a sculptor and image-maker whose artistic practice revolves around cycles, processes, and the exploration of temporality. Describing herself as an "image-making writer," she approaches each project like writing a book—an intuitive, evolving process that allows her to uncover new narratives and create multiple works, often incorporating various materials like clay, PUR foam, plaster, and bronze. Inspired by the representation of women throughout history and fascinated by the fragility of life, Schatteman’s art grapples with the frustration of impermanence. Her figurative sculptures, often feminine in form, merge storytelling with research drawn from anthropology, psychology, and mythology, crafting works that reflect on human existence and its cyclical nature. Schatteman integrates imperfections, such as cracks in the material, as part of the narrative, embracing the inevitable passage of time while striving to create lasting expressions of life’s fleeting moments.
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