Françoise Stoop (1963) creates paintings on burlap sacks.
Time and creation (nature) are central themes.
The burlap sacks hang loosely on a wooden frame. These sacks were once used for potatoes, onions, grains, or legumes, as well as sandbags, which are smaller and used to repair and reinforce our dikes. When there is a dike breakthrough, the bags are passed in a train and therefore cannot be too heavy. The strings used to tie them closed are part of the composition. All the sacks used for painting were old or rejected.
Some paintings represents how humans deal with nature. We repair, but we do it poorly. These repairs will not save nature, and therefore us
Some represents the era after us. Then the gaps will slowly heal, and new organisms will emerge.
A new area of exploration in her work is the night. During the day, we have more contact with the Earth, at night with the cosmos. She does not see the night as a dark, somber place for wandering souls, but as the magical, exciting, and silent other half of our lives.
The frames are often made of wood over 350 years old from a building in Deventer, known as the "secondary beams."
In addition, she creates ceramics: earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain.
They are hand-turned and have glaze compositions that are very similar to the paintings.
She develops her own glazes. The bowl is one of humanity's oldest forms and has symbolic value related to giving and receiving.
The round shapes, nature, and time are core concepts in the Japanese wabi-sabi philosophy, which is about the beauty of imperfection.
Life does not proceed in a straight line from A to B.
Through her work, she aims to create a calm point in our busy, digital lives.
