My name is Bas Linssen, visual artist (29-04,1964, Nijmegen, the Netherlands), graphic design graduate from ArtEZ University of the Arts (1994). My work, of which the primary medium is paper, explores themes such as vulnerability, consolation, and family.
The vulnerability and diversity that characterize paper as a material connect seamlessly to what I wish to express in my work. The works I create engage with memories I have and the longing for what was. I am driven by the desire to bring hidden layers back to the surface and to preserve them there. In my works, these memories are assembled and merged, making for overlapping and intertwining fragments, similar to scenes in a film. It is a process of drawing, scratching, scraping, removing, adding, up until I grasped my memory as best as possible. The sensitivity of paper as a medium corresponds to the sensitivity and vulnerability that characterize my works. Each created tear, scratch, or notch is irreversible and will always remain, despite attempts to cover up these “scars”. Every action remains visible and plays a permanent role in the image that is created, as memories that remain omnipresent.
Many of my works, using natural paper as medium, are created as a response to my daily walks and the objects/materials that I find. Different kinds of selfmade paper pulp, consisting of picked berries and leaves, determine the texture, fragility, and color of these works, depending on found materials, as well as ever-changing nature. The medium is characterized by a certain vulnerability, fragility, and transience, which connects to the themes of my work.
The vulnerability and diversity that characterize paper as a material connect seamlessly to what I wish to express in my work. The works I create engage with memories I have and the longing for what was. I am driven by the desire to bring hidden layers back to the surface and to preserve them there. In my works, these memories are assembled and merged, making for overlapping and intertwining fragments, similar to scenes in a film. It is a process of drawing, scratching, scraping, removing, adding, up until I grasped my memory as best as possible. The sensitivity of paper as a medium corresponds to the sensitivity and vulnerability that characterize my works. Each created tear, scratch, or notch is irreversible and will always remain, despite attempts to cover up these “scars”. Every action remains visible and plays a permanent role in the image that is created, as memories that remain omnipresent.
Many of my works, using natural paper as medium, are created as a response to my daily walks and the objects/materials that I find. Different kinds of selfmade paper pulp, consisting of picked berries and leaves, determine the texture, fragility, and color of these works, depending on found materials, as well as ever-changing nature. The medium is characterized by a certain vulnerability, fragility, and transience, which connects to the themes of my work.
