Machteld van Joolingen: It's only temporary

‘It’s only temporary’ An exhibition of work by Machteld van Joolingen

"What we experience as time is nothing more than the conception that most events are not reversible. G. Krol

What remains and what disappears? The image, form, material and meaning - everything is subject to a change. Most of it vanishes in the end.

My discovery of plastic bags as a material is rather recent.

The colour, the shine and the many kinds of plastic contained in the plastic bags have seduced me to do several series of melting experiments. I started with cutting the plastic bags into small pieces, melting them in the oven and then taking them out to press them into a mould.
At a later stage I have realised that for the ultimate result, it is much better to work without a mould, and concentrate on the pure material – the melted plastic.
Currently, I sometimes stitch the pieces together before putting them in the oven. I try to influence the outcome during the melting process. For this I take the piece out of the oven, rearrange the plastic and put it back again. This may happen several times during the baking process. I also try to influence the colour palette of the plastic although this may not lead to the indented result. The key moment is when to take the piece out of the oven; a difference of few seconds could result in totally different outcome. The experience of unpredictability and chance excites me.

I also value the fact that many friends collected the plastic bags for me and jointly we are aiding a recycling process. Ugly bags may lead to beautiful results and vice versa.

From the melted material I select those pieces that have expressiveness and shape the story into my jewellery pieces. These pieces might carry reference to traditional jewelery, for it is tradition that delicately balances between temporary and eternal."

Place: Galerie Louise Smit
(Amsterdam, Netherlands)
19-Jun-2011 - 23-Jul-2011

Thanks for sending the images Machteld.