Penelope Sculpture

I was born in Groningen, the Netherlands, in 1962. I grew up as the second daughter of a family with four children. I soon came into contact with textile because there was plenty of it lying about our house as a consequence of my father’s profession. Even as a young girl I had a strong feeling for the material because I believed that anything made of textile could not be broken and because I wanted nothing more than to act out my imagination with various fabrics. My mother had a whole chest full of cloths made of all kinds of fiber. Even her wedding dress was in this chest and it was subjected to a snipping session for a theatre play. Sometimes my father arrived home with a suitcase from which a minor wonder would emerge. Suddenly the floor was scattered with samples, colours and patterns. Then the stories began. Distant journeys, other cultures, exotic food. In this way, a piece of cloth became the fabric of a story. Full of excitement and expectation I would touch it, as if I myself were also in that other world. Occasionally I would find a small error in the soul of the fabric, in the embroidery, or perhaps a slight colour deviation in the pattern. Human hands had made it. That fired the imagination. I attended grammar school where I first came into contact with mythology. This has remained a nutrient medium for my work, which has always been related to stories. I discovered the true significance of batik patterns, wajang, African masks, and art – Paul Klee, the Bauhaus and other art movements. A route began to open up to me. In this period I saw the Triangel Figurentheater for the first time, a surrealistic puppet theatre presented by Henk Boerwinkel, which enjoyed worldwide acclaim. This left a deep impression on me. After all, textile couldn’t simply come to life spontaneously? I have never forgotten this performance, but it still took some time before I found my own way. I went to the Academie voor Expressie en Communicatie (AVEC) in Leeuwarden in 1981. I wanted to work with people. At the Academie I experimented with costumes, puppets, Commedia dell’Arte, masks, movement and theatre. Pina Bausch was one of the people who inspired me, and I visited her in Wuppertal to study the effects of theatre in which personal motives are interwoven. After graduating, I contacted the Pop en Spel Kollektief (Puppet and Play Collective), a professional theatre company. Yvon Hofer educated me in the practical aspects of puppet-making.