Sanne Maes

Contemporary artist Sanne Maes (1974) studied Fine Arts at The Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, and is based in The Netherlands and in Spain. Sanne Maes is a member of various artist associations and has been exhibiting in museums, galleries and artist-run spaces, amongst other places. The work of Sanne Maes is an artistic research on the modern human, and his ambivalent self-image. She is intrigued by the relationship of man to nature, but also by man in relation to himself. Sanne Maes is a multi-disciplinary artist, she makes videos, sculptures, installations and drawings. The work often consists of several layers of images on top of each other; doused sculptures, paintings with projections, translucent drawings on tracing paper, but also, projections on top of reliëfs, shadow work through light and video in combination with a still image. The video images, usually a subdued self-portrait, are projected through another image. This unique working method, in which Sanne Maes has specialized herself over the years, has evolved into its own visual language. Her work is created entirely associatively. During the work process she experiments a lot with different layers and images, she only stops when the end result is absolutely satisfying. What makes an image good is completely intuitive. One of her latest series of works “Lost identity” is about the human psyche. The human tendency to get a grip on its own psyche, and an attempt to understand the human mind. The works consist of video portraits on television screens; portraits half-hidden behind Rorschach-inspired inkblots. The Rorschach inkblot test is a psychological test to understand the personality of an individual, it involves the evaluation of a subject’s response to ambiguous inkblots. The test is based on the fact that humans tend to project their interpretations and feelings onto, in this case, inkblots. The human being in these works tries to become one with the inkblots, to merge, or simply to hide. Sometimes two portraits move through each other, which reinforces the feeling of a spiritual struggle.