Miriam Knibbeler

Miriam Knibbeler exposeerde in December al in de galerie met -Hangend Paard-;Dit werk gemaakt van was en touw deed eerder veel stof opwaaien. Dit Memento mori was aanleiding tot menig filosofisch gesprek met de bezoekers, over het leven en de kwetsbaarheid daarvan. Zelden roerde en ontroerde een kunstwerk zoveel zielen. De nieuwe werken van Miriam Knibbeler zijn gemaakt uit dezelfde materialen. De transparantie van de was die zij gebruikt heeft een gelijkenis met de onbeschermde huid. Kwetsbaar. Door de krachtige, fiere  houding van de baviaan en de Egyptische kat bakenen de beelden -Wachter- en -Sfinx- echter ook hun plek af. Zij staan als poortwachters op hun stalen sokkel.

‘(…) by fixing the appearance of transient humanity, wax acknowledges time’s passing. It attests to mortality, and acts as a subtle testament to death, a barely detectable memento mori.’ Roberta Panzanelli From: Ephemeral bodies: Wax sculpture and the human figure (2008)

Miriam Knibbeler:The material that I work with, wax, has a lot of ambiguities. Physical ones: it can be hard or soft, warm or cold, vulnerable or solid, durable or transient. And mimetic ones: it can imitate skin very closely and therefore sculptures can be very lifelike. Besides this relation with life, it has strong associations with death, with illness and degeneration of flesh, with softness and mortality. Because of the stillness of a sculpture, it imitates flesh that is no longer alive. I create humanlike and animallike figures, for me they are quite the same. I strive for a high level of mimesis. Therefore they are very recognisable, but still there is something different about them. I play with scale and proportions. It causes a strangeness that makes you look closer. The physical presence of the work is very important. But at the same time, the transparancy of the wax denies that. Therefore, the immaterial, the spiritual is also present. These beings seem to come from another world, a very old world of memories, dreams and myths. We don’t have to understand. The magic is in the sensory experience and the imagination.