Heleen Blanken’s earliest memory of creating art is that of her grandmother, who she’d often watch drawing as a child. Following suit, Heleen started making drawings of her own. To hone her craft, the Dutch artist enrolled at the Rietveld Academy, where she studied a course in fine art. But after her final exam – for which she submitted two video installations – she decided that painting wasn’t for her and she made her first venture into the world of film, working alongside a group of Dutch writers to provide visuals for all their various musings.
Interested in opposing forces within art, in the past Heleen’s work has focused on the relationship between the traditional and the modern, the natural versus the industrial, and the analogue versus the digital. For her latest offering, Heleen collaborated with ultra cool casualwear label Napapijri on a bespoke sound and visual installation, which centred around the tension between industrial destruction and the beauty of nature. Staged at the Village Underground last Thursday, the piece was created to accompany the brand’s specially commissioned opera – performed on four grand pianos – which celebrated the launch of its autumn/winter collection and campaign. Fresh from the performance, we talked to Heleen about the power of nature and the dominant artistic dichotomies of our time.
When did you first become interested in art?
My grandma was always drawing, and I followed her. When I was 18 I started studying graphic design because I wanted to learn how to work with computers. During that period I had an internship at artist Danielle Kwaaitaal’s studio. She showed me how to be an autonomous artist, then after some years I started studying at the Rietveld Academy.
Who or what inspires you?
Nature and earth’s beauty.
How would you describe your overall aesthetic?
I work with a wide range of visual mediums. I try to visually deconstruct some of the dominant artistic dichotomies of our time, such as the traditional versus the modern, the natural versus the industrial and analogue versus digital. All my work is film based or consists from natural and artificial elements in dialog.
What are you trying to do with your art?
I think I try to give a voice to what some people may see as conventional. To show beauty in what sometimes is overlooked. The earth is a beautiful place and we are destroying it.
How did the collaboration with Napapijri come about?
The marketing agency First Day Of Spring that was working on the launch of the Napapijri Campaign contacted me. After seeing their visual take on things for the campaign, and hearing the concept of the event they were preparing included a special performance of one of my favourite piano pieces, I decided I wanted to participate.
You are working on a new installation at the Rembrant House Museum, what’s the concept behind the installation?
The work is called Terrene. It’s an artificial depiction of geological structures and earth’s atmosphere. The courtyard of the museum is a large cylinder, and the installation can be experienced from different levels in the museum. This inspired me to make a layered construction, both visible and audible, where each layer represents an earthly natural phenomenon. Peter Van Hoesen made the soundtrack. The idea was inspired by the works of eccentric 17th-century landscape artist Hercules Segers.
What do you want viewers to take away from it?
I want them to experience the most basic forces of nature.
What’s the bravest thing you can do as a young person?
I think the bravest thing is to choose to live life without feeling the pressure to have to live conform the rules of the majority. To choose your own path. Fight for your own voice and existence.
If you could change one thing about the world what would it be and why?
I would eliminate money. It is the source of our man made destructions in earth natural processes.
What are you currently working on?
I am now doing the final preparation for my sculptural sound installation at the Rembrandt House Museum with artist Peter Van Hoesen. It’s super exciting, it’s my first non-video or photography-based project for quite some time..
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Credits
Text Tish Weinstock