Maria Kuipers
Are disability arts and therapy mutually exclusive? Colin Hambrook reviews the work of an artist whose work embraces a therapeutic approach.
I first came across digital representations of Maria Kuipers work in 2001. I was immediately intrigued by the reflective 'feel' of her work. When I finally saw it in the flesh at an 'Open House' exhibition in her home, I got excited because it was clear she was reclaiming the idea of making work that has a therapeutic value. There has been much debate within the Disability Arts movement around art described as having a therapeutic value often being dismissed as Art therapy. This stems from the traditional approach, which takes power away from the individual who is receiving Art therapy and puts it into the hands of the therapist. However it doesn't account for the artist who takes a therapeutic approach to their work.
An intuitive approach
Maria explains, Art therapy is usually created in response to an event, trauma or emotional issue, and that is not the way I work. I don't work in a traditional way either; my methods of working seem to fall in-between the two.
I usually start a painting with a randomly chosen piece of collage or stitch a piece of fabric and place it on the canvas, and from there I develop the work intuitively. The content emerges and evolves but I am not aware of any issues or memory for example at the time of making.
My experience as someone with a disability is integral to my work and the way I choose to work. I consciously let go thinking about the end product and allow each painting to evolve in it's own time. The materials I use become my subject matter and it is through this choice of materials and techniques that I connect and express my emotions and senses for each moment. Considering aesthetic values are more important to me than the emotional content but alongside this I need to 'play'. I feel my whole approach is key to allowing my subconscious to create and often resulting in highly emotive images.
image, Maria Kuipers
Art as poetry
Maria's canvases have a perfectionist quality about them. The more you stare into the frame the more layers you can unearth. Each layer reveals a little more of the truth of the journey she took to arrive. It is a bit like meditating, or at least trying to follow the breath as you breathe in and out. There is a sense of containment and structure, with frames and borders, lines that demark one area of experience or emotion from another. At the same time there is a sense of opening up into space. The poetry of each mark made; each incision cut into the canvas or area stitched back into the canvas, yields an emotional passage.
Details of Maria's outlets at galleries can be found on her website www.mariakuipers.co.uk. It also offers a profile, a gallery, exhibitions, as well as a whole section on her therapeutic aims. The emphasis of the approach is about the artist having control over the therapeutic input. It has a value I think needs to be accepted and explored by disability arts.
last updated: 2005-03-01 00:00:00
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tags : visual arts therapy survivor arts