Magdeleen van Eersel
Visual Artist
Endimions
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Site-inspired murals and objects
Fort Rammekens, near Ritthem, The Netherlands, 2003
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With a high degree of air humidity and very little daylight coming in, the atmosphere in Fort Rammekens (which was constructed in 1547) reminded me strongly of a cave. So the first idea was to create cave paintings.
I also wanted to enhance the eerie, dreamlike atmosphere of the place. So my "cave paintings" turned into fantasy figures, inspired by dreams and untold stories.
To intensify this sense of entering an entirely different, dreamlike dimension, I painted the images with UV-reactive paint and illuminated the room with UV-lights.
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Materials for the murals:
agricultural plastic (painting directly on the walls was not allowed) UV-reactive paint, acrylic binder, titanium oxide, UV-lamps.
Fish Man
2 x 1 m
Angel
6 x 3 m
Pirate Fish
6 x 5 m.
A look around the big room: Dragon, Coelacanth, Octopus and Pirate Fish.
Sizes resp. 6 x 5 m, 2 x 5m, 2 x 5m and 6 x 5 m.
Two tiny rooms in a long corridor in the fort, inspired me to create two house-shaped objects.
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One was a simple wooden frame, with walls that were made of pieces of fabric drenched in candle wax, and then "glued" together. A vague shadow of an abstract shape could be seen through the walls.
Huis I
2 x 1,30 x 2 m
Materialen: stof, kaarsvet, hout, elektriciteitsdraad, lamp, papier
The other house was made from scrap wood, with large cracks between the boards, so you could peek inside and see latex rubber leaves scattered on the floor, lit by a bare light bulb.
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I found out afterwards, that the room that had inspired me to build this waste wooden house, had been used as a prison cell in the past.
Huis II
2 x 1,30 x 2 m
Materialen: afvalhout, elektriciteitsdraad, lamp, latexrubber, boombladeren.