Ielse Slager and her search for innerness

“After a couple of years of exhibiting and writing I found that my work has more layers to it that I would like to explore. Furthermore I heard the Masters would be a great opportunity to explore art theory and philosophy which now have added to the joy I have in writing my thesis. I am not making art for myself but for the other. I look for these moments that feel timeless and lost from the current world to create a wandering place for the viewer. I have a drive of making theory visible. And even though I know there is too much art in the world there is not another artist to make the art I make which helps me to continue making. I have to make art.”

“At the moment I am finalizing my thesis about the workings of our innerness in relation to our outside. I am researching the perception of our inner selves and also how the outside changes our perception it. With time and distances we try to understand ourselves. Care for your own soul as it is your own. The soul is motion, the soul is spirit and the spirit travels between the two planes we are most familiar with; our inside and the landscape.”

Search for innerness

“There are a lot of different things I care for, that inspire me, but to me they are not so different. They are just connected in a different way. Abstract things that inspire me and are at the base of my research are nothingness, timelessness, direction, wandering meaningless and caring for small unnoticed moments. Our search for our innerness makes us travel in the mind. These journeys makes us wanderers, pilgrims.”

“Graphite is a medium I use most often and it is the base for the other mediums I use. I prefer this material because it is a natural ingredient with great aesthetics that asks for care and time of the user. For example a video can stem from a written piece after a drawing, but even a video piece can speak with similar simple aesthetics and care that graphite has. The first strike of a pencil or the first written down word is the start of my work and research. The start of an idea is maybe impossible as thoughts are a continuation of other thoughts perhaps. My work is a search about being lost in my and our innerness. I usually need to get lost first to get to know where I am and to get reacquainted with lost ideas.”

Cultuurnacht

“If everything goes as planned, as I am confident that it will, I will be showing an installation about distances and of our perception of here and there. During this event I would like to give a thought to the audience by my work. A thought of care and of distance.”

“In the future, if still healthy and alive, I will probably be writing, publishing, researching, making and with the possibility of teaching because of interest in another’s thought process of making art. I will continue being myself with a continuation of my thoughts and work, because I simply cannot be any other person.”

Part of thesis and of a theater play:

One.                           Do you see that line over there?

Two.                           No….

One.                           It is there!

Two.                           That is not a line, it is a place. A place that will be nearer to us with each step

                                   we take.

One.                           The line I meant is the horizon.

                                   It is imaginary.

Two.                           The horizon?