Natasja Kensmil: Frozen Queen

FROZEN QUEEN

NATASJA KENSMIL

MICHAEL STEVENSON

11 March – 17 April 2010

FROZEN QUEEN

NATASJA KENSMIL

into the past and have bearing on the present. The past nourishes the present and shapes present society.

respects, they silence me. Rather than provoking the mind into asking questions, they quietly remind me of

Construction and destruction are firmly rooted in nature and mankind; they are the materials of evolution. I see

In your painting, are you constantly aware of the intangible in relation to our lives and history?

transparent in my work. In this way I examine the relationship between the present and the past. This movement is increasingly independent of time.

with its chaos and silence has more influence on me than I would like.

History consists of many layers, which I try to make

the urge for renewal and change. hunting and shouting through my head. The world

intangible earthly spiritual energies. But still they are

this movement of evolution as an essential process in

the space in which it lives and on which it looks out.

answers about a world we know and recognise.

Natasja Kensmil: I’m not constantly aware of the

fate of a culture can be made up from the history of

the silence that they command, they resist affirming

Historical events write a landscape of meanings. The

present is determined by factors that extend decades

discussion about your paintings is that, in many

realms that we cannot understand or comprehend. In

figures in my work because I am convinced that the

Michael Stevenson: A paradoxical start to this

Natasja Kensmil in conversation with Michael Stevenson

Earthly and unearthly powers

spirits and ancestors. Was this narrative in your mind when you were painting the works?

relationships between pictures and look at images for my thoughts to develop and change. From the archive

power but also by the way she held on to this power.

pictures.

Elizabeth I granted permission for the killing of witches and many innocent people. She was probably concerned about being accused of being a witch herself – she could have inherited her mother’s witchcraft. Another strong concern of hers was the suppression of the Catholic Church. These different factors instilled in her a fear of

extremism of our time. For example, in my painting

Desperate Land, from 2004, I was intuitively looking at the dark authority of religion and the way that people relate to religion and mysticism. I was playing with the idea that God is a human fabrication to prevent him from bursting into beastliness.

commissioned while she was alive. Whereas the traditional images celebrate power and pomposity, yours expose the anguished inner life and tragedy of their subject. Are you seeing through the grandiose illusion and laying bare the gore of historical glory?

of the holy war and everlasting racism. In this painting the figure of Rasputin could also be seen in relation to the brotherhoods of the Santísimo Cristo del Salvador in Spanish Valencia, Goya’s The Procession, the Ku Klux

believe that the soul lives on in the portraits of the

of the ghosts, the underworld … Then the appearance of

existence as we know it?

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portraits as postmortems.

Queen Elizabeth I came to me. I started to see her state

explored the realm of the living that overlaps with that

constructs of life and time that are fundamental to

Yes, you could see it like this. I use history or historical

escape their failed lives and to flee their loneliness. I

Do you see your paintings as collapsing the

dead. The spirits of the children wander; they try to

of infants. While painting these portraits I started to

which fascinates me.

Hope, fear, pain and the craving for power, violence, creation and destruction are inextricably entwined,

I started painting a series of postmortem portraits

as posthumous counterpoints to the official portraits

searched for the aestheticism of the horror, the horror

Klansmen of Philip Guston, or Abu Ghraib.

Your portraits of Queen Elizabeth I effectively serve

spellbound and gives them shape as a group. But I also

a severe and merciless sovereign.

the attraction of a figure that holds a group of followers

credulous people. I wanted to evoke a romantic image,

of Rasputin – a religious maniac who was surrounded by

losing the throne and even her life, and forced her to be

accused of being a witch and sentenced to death, yet

With this thought, I included in the painting a portrait

hunts occurred. Elizabeth’s mother, Anne Boleyn, was

from history, religion and mythology but also from the

the time that she ruled England, witchcraft and witch

in England, there was a dark side to her reign too. In

My imagery of fear and of anxiousness is derived

What do you think this might be?

am not only fascinated by her appearance as a great

I am convinced that there is something hidden in these

Although she was regarded as a loving queen, especially

Elizabeth I was one of the greatest queen figures. I

I have collected, I select some images that are related.

of old images, photographs, postcards and newspapers

correspondence in her fraught relationship with

I work alone, in seclusion. There I can see various

In this new series of four paintings reflecting on Queen Elizabeth I, your interest in the ethereal finds

My studio is full of images hanging on the wall, lying on the table and floor. I see it as a refuge in which

With a lot of fear I let myself be carried away by

thoughts. It is a combination of feeling and thinking. The finished work must shock and surprise me. Only when it

encapsulates a tragedy.

about, I think about it; however, I don’t ever have a full understanding of it.

but your imagery has a distinct and different sensibility that sets it apart from this tradition.

is constantly shifting in your work. Initially, the drawings served as sketches for the conception of

the Netherlands in the 1970s, and you have returned there a number of times.

between specific drawings and paintings diminishes, the paintings become more like drawings in their skeletal forms, and vice versa.

domain of my ancestors, nature is inhabited by dark and light creatures. Inanimate objects are considered to be living and to have a soul just like people, animals

images. In my recent work I wanted to transform the whimsicality of my drawings into my paintings.

darkness and of unknown nature. The belief in witchery has always been kept alive by my ancestors, and my

together to create a new image. By repeatedly painting or drawing away the image, traces are left through which a dialogue with the new image arises. It is a process of re-digesting material and ideas. All emotional areas must be diluted by cold analysis. Therefore the paintings become a sort of symbolic struggle. The motionless image must continually move in front of the eye and in the head.

In the composition of your paintings, am I correct in thinking that you integrate symbolic elements in a manner that resists formal analysis of their individual meanings?

In recent years, your paintings have become increasingly monochromatic. Is this because you sense that colour is inappropriate for giving form to the suffering, torment and violence of power that the paintings illuminate? (As an aside, this is the explanation that the photographer David Goldblatt offered for his focus on black-and-white photography in the apartheid era.)

In fact, in my work the flesh colour is made up of light blue gray, gray, yellow, light ochre, gray red brown, light pink. These colours are constantly mixed. In the recent paintings the very light and very dark colours catch the

must comprise layers of accumulated images, added

I’m not easily satisfied with an image. In the end, it

very thick. But I began to yearn for more transparent

subterranean thoughts, man’s deeply rooted fear of

parents, in their acceptance of dark and evil spirits.

In my older work the surface of the paintings was

universal. They evoke a hallucinatory world, born of

and insects. The belief in spirits and demons is almost

in their own realm. Yet, while the direct relationship

Yes, my Surinamese background plays a role. In the

a painting, whereas now they manifest as thoughts

The relationship between drawing and painting

ancestry? Your parents moved from Suriname to

Could this difference be related to your Surinamese

at first. While working, I sense what the painting is

unequivocally rich in references to European painting

In the end, it is an idea I had that I could not articulate

is finished do I see the meaning of it.

I work very much from my intuition and from a train of

incomprehension, loss and violence. The queen

Your painting style and subject matter are

It changes constantly … I never know where it will end.

of love, pride and glory, but also full of terror, disgust,

integrity of the image becomes clear to you?

I wanted to reflect on the psyche of the queen – full

her self-destructive, traumatic looks. In the portraits

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moment in the process of realising a painting when the unearthly.

I want to strengthen the duality of the earthly and the

my world.

alone in its internal conversations to ensure that it has a reason for existence. How do you reach this sudden

I want to explore and get a better understanding of

in the sense that I select the images that come to me.

make my work from an inner urge. My work is personal

You have said that a painting must be able to stand

I want to visualise universal characters.

Each painting must be animated. I feel that I should

of images within these icons to control my temper.

layers – of colour – just like history. I try to avoid the traditional flesh colours because they imply prejudice.

make me restless, and I have to find my own language

earthly and the spiritual. They are made up of many

image with different meanings. Images come to me and

the power of an image and the possibility of layering an

and under the skin unfold.

The figures I paint in oil exist in an area between the

Symbolism and iconic images fascinate me – especially

eye at first and gradually the other colours hidden in

The Old 2009 Oil on canvas 150 x 150cm

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Hydra 2009 Oil on canvas 230 x 200cm

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11

Elizabeth I 2009 Oil on canvas 200 x 200cm

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15

17

Living Ancestors 2009 Oil on canvas 260 x 140cm

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(2006/2005). She won the Philip Morris art prize in 2003.

of Oregon and Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, USA

Contemporary Artists from the Netherlands, University

of Aggression, National Gallery, Macedonia (2007); and

d’Art Contemporain, Sigean, France (2007); Innocent

Néerlandais, Paris (2008/2006); Sister Sledge, LAC – Lieu

Into Drawing, Schloss Moyland, Germany, and Institut

Black is Beautiful, Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam (2008);

deflecting attention, Michael Stevenson, Cape Town (2008);

Netherlands (2009); Disguise: The art of attracting and

include Stressed Spaces, KW_14, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the

the Cobra Museum, Amstelveen (2003). Group exhibitions

Galerie Paul Andriesse, Amsterdam (2007 and 2009), and

Ateliers. Her most recent solo shows have taken place at

Rietveld Academie, followed by postgraduate studies at De

continues to live and work there. She studied at the Gerrit

Natasja Kensmil was born in 1973 in Amsterdam and

Biography

Printing Hansa Print, Cape Town

Photography and image repro Mario Todeschini

Editor Sophie Perryer | Design Gabrielle Guy

Michael Stevenson Buchanan Building, 160 Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock 7925 Cape Town, South Africa Tel +27 (0)21 462 1500 | info@michaelstevenson.com www.michaelstevenson.com

All works courtesy of Galerie Paul Andriesse, Amsterdam

Back cover image Hydra, 2009, detail

Front cover image The Old, 2009, detail

Catalogue no 49 March 2010

MICHAEL STEVENSON