CLEA VAN DER GRIJN -Artist statement-

Cléa van der Grijn –
In more than one way the art of painting. Of creating, of filmmaking has helped me redeem the control of my life. It gives me strength to break barriers and follow an unconventional path. I want to be free of limitations, whilst learning and producing work. My art motivates me and gives me the passion for following this ambition. Filmmaking is a passport to seeing the changing world. It broadens international and intercultural perspectives. Experimental film is a magnificent visceral mixture of sight and sound, more so than any other art form in terms of pure expressionistic potential. With my practice as a painter + experimental film maker, I can express emotions, ideas and concepts through literal and abstract imagery, through juxtaposition editing and the creative use of sound design.
It is my intention with paintings and film, to create a space, the space between now and then. Exploring the dynamism of emptiness in a realm where time and space are altered. Past, present and future are considered in the gaps in-between, blurring the boundaries between fact and fiction. In film, my characters will emphasise the unstable, vulnerable and emotional states of mankind, with prominence on dreamscapes and mindscapes. A fantasy world, an abstract/oneiric land which is both cinematically beautiful and psychologically disturbing. A world that explores significant topics such as death, loss, love, isolation, mental health etc. With paint I have always worked intuitively, with impulsion. Within the genre of experimentation I want to explore entirely new ways of painting with the aim of innovating my practice.

Truth hurts. Since 2008 van der Grijn has been working on the subject of death and memory . Her practice dealt with unraveling the complexities associated around the culture of death and reconstructed memory, researching the myth of repressed memory, re- imagining and process all become part her narrative, understanding the rational, social and emotional circumstances that become constructed around memory and time. RECONSTRUCTED MEMORY (2016). The process of her studio practice is multifaceted. This is demonstrated through painting, film, installation,

sculpture, audio and writing, which all deal with the reconstruction of time + memory. Fact and fiction. A construct rather than a deconstruct.
Since 2018 van der Grijn’s film practice has developed , winning awards at prestigeous international film festivals and the recent purchase of her 26 min film JUMP from IMMA ( Irish Museum of Modern Art )as part of their permanent national collection. However it is painting, the paint, the direct unfiltered connection with the canvas, that drives her. It is through her paintings that van der Grijn explores the complexities of mental health, addiction and societal stigmas thereof.