07 November 2012

Art I like - Marian Bijlenga's fishscale works

Revisiting the work of Marian Bijlenga, I find many works made from fish-scales - see them here, where these photos are borrowed from -
The scales are those of the Nile perch. 

She adds ink onto the scales, then stitches them together by machine; the piece below measures 27cm square -
What makes this so interesting, I think, isn't just the unusual material or the sparse yet varied and rich treatment with ink, but the basic combination of the gridded structure and the various shapes of the scales, underlying and understated, making for rhythm and movement. Thus the real support of the work - the invisible support - is the space between the scales.

See more of her work at browngrotta.com and of course on her own website, marianbijlenga.com

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