This is what van Herwaarden syas on her site about her work:
Academic Collection
After graduating from the academy, van Herwaarden spent a few years drawing in the academic collection of Leiden University to study the inner workings, the matter from which we are made. She couldn’t separate the physical form from feelings such as fear, desire, resistance, and surrender. Drives and emotions that have both a purifying and disruptive function in our lives. This research in the academic collection serves as the foundation of her work.
The Wise Body
Van Herwaarden: ‘It intrigues me that our body ‘knows’ so much, even about others. Memory and ‘intelligence’ do not reside solely in our brain. It is the body, the skin, and muscles that hold memories, experiences that are imprinted in the body: the body’s memory. Our body can tell our brain just as much as our brain tells our body.’
Empathy
The ability to empathize allows for compassion and comfort: these are achievements that Caren van Herwaarden considers universal and essential in achieving peaceful coexistence. It’s about you: are you able to put yourself into the situation of an (unknown) other, regardless of belief, age, or gender? This is the opposite of dehumanization and cold indifference. With her work, van Herwaarden aims to show and bring about this transformation. She strives to make this not only visible but also physically palpable in her work. Van Herwaarden: ‘I want the viewer to experience and recognize my work through their gut before possibly understanding it. It must be raw, something you can almost smell.’
www.ftn-books.com has the STAY book from 2010 now available.
