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Maria Roosen (born 1957, Oisterwijk) is exhibiting at Kunsthal KAdE in Amersfoort from October 1, 2017 to January 7, 2018. In the exhibition VUUR she shows both new creations and early work. Maria Roosen makes sculptures, drawings, watercolors and installations in a variety of materials including eggs, lemons, pomegranates, soap, glass, wool and wood. The process of making, craftsmanship and artisanship are as important to her as the final result. In her large body of work, fire plays an essential role, both literally and figuratively. The relentless fire that can be both formative and destructive, but also offers a purifying power for both maker and viewer.
Maria Roosen breaks a lance for imagination. "Imagination makes life a lot more pleasant, enjoyable and bearable. Imagination is necessary to understand life." She considers her sculptures to be "Tools for Feelings. They are utensils meant to represent feelings, evoking thoughts on topics such as growth, flowering, fertility, love and death.
Last year Maria Roosen worked on 'Widow 1' and 'Widow 2': two life-size sculptures made from heavy tree trunks. The annual rings of 'Widow I' were given different colors. The skin of 'Widow II' is blackened. Black as the color of deepest sorrow, mourning and evil. Black is the absence of all light. Black as the result after a fire, as in the burning Thorn ball of blackberry branches in Roosen's 2000 film that is also on display at the exhibition.
Part of the exhibition are the "glass building blocks of life" - as Roosen himself calls them - which are executed in all the colors possible in glassblowing; from Pflaumenblau to Irisgold from Opalflieder as far as Dunkelheliotrope, from Granatrot to Elfenbein. In the exhibition, all these names - like a poem - can be read on the floor of the main hall.
Maria Roosen on the making process: "When making, I learn every time and it inspires me greatly: I see things come into being that you can never imagine beforehand. They are special encounters with the idea, with the design or with the glassblower who brings in all his experience and his own handwriting, where the whole becomes more than the sum of its parts. When things go well, the process feels like "making love. Sometimes it doesn't go well either, then the concentration is lacking or I can't quite explain what I mean."
Maria Roosen's exhibition VUUR is part of a series of solo exhibitions at Kunsthal KAdE on sculpture; with overviews by Tom Claassen in 2010 and Henk Visch in 2012 and smaller presentations by Francis Upritchard in 2011 and David Altmejd in 2016. In late June 2013, Maria Roosen placed sculptures on several lampposts in Amersfoort. Roosen was commissioned by Stichting Amersfoort in C and the municipality of Amersfoort to mark the route between the museums. Roosen chose to make use of the lampposts that line the entire route. She designed whimsical, transparent blue shapes, which lie on top of the lampposts like a hat. Together, they give a subtle accent to the route between the museums.
Courtesy of Galerie Fons Welters and Roberto Polo Gallery.
www.mariaroosen.com
The exhibition was created with support from the Mondriaan Fund and the Municipality of Amersfoort
