Though the works to be exhibited were all ‘MADE in Sri Lanka’, Dutch artists Jeanne Geubbels-Denissen and Petra van der Plas say they were inspired by what the Dutch brought to the country. “Of course, there’s also what they’ve taken from the island, but that is something I cannot change,” says Jeanne with a wry smile. The two women are here in the company of their spouses, both men are currently working on the Dikkowita fishing harbour and they and their families are expected to remain here till the project reaches completion in August. In the meantime, Jeanne and Petra seem to have fallen a little in love with Sri Lanka.
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Jeanne: Offering alternate
interpretations. |
Looking around her, Petra believes her stay here has helped revive her as an artist – she says she’s already dreading the thought of leaving. Having spent a decade in human resource management prior to coming here, Petra struggled with a feeling that something was missing from her life. When her husband was assigned to work in Sri Lanka, she saw it as a chance to return to her first love – photography – and to explore her artistic side. The daughter of a photographer, Petra remembers hours spent as a little girl observing her father at work in his darkroom and adds that her fascination with the medium began then.
She has found much to inspire her in Sri Lanka, particularly in places like Galle where the colonial presence still finds tangible shape in the area’s architecture and cultural inheritance. In fact, for Petra this exhibition might be only half done – she hopes to return home and to search out similar images, mirror images of Sri Lanka as it were, in Holland.
Jeanne, whose husband is an engineer with BAM International, says her art is a way to “try to put my ideas about our countries, cultures, colours into shapes that inspire people.” Through the thirty odd years of their marriage, the couple have travelled the world, living in Jordan, Yemen, Algeria, Angola, Aruba, Indonesia, Tanzania, South Africa and now Sri Lanka.
“I use all kinds of mediums,” says Jeanne, adding that she also loves working with children and leads painting classes for her young pupils. Their base on the island is a small home in Hendala-Wattala, and Jeanne says the solitary lifestyle has led to a great surge in her productivity. “I spend at least a few hours painting every day,” she says, explaining that she has built up a significant body of work.
In fact, Jeanne and Petra first met at Jeanne’s exhibition ‘Impressions of Sri Lanka’ at the Alliance Française in November last year. Since Petra’s husband is also attached to BAM as a Finance Manager, the two fell into conversation. They found that both of them were interested in exploring what remained of the Dutch in Sri Lanka. Jeanne also confessed to a fascination with religion. For the proposed exhibition, both women decided to work with a range of mediums – painting on both the canvas and the computer and working with wood and metal.
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| Petra: Zooming in on her subject |
In the months that they’ve been preparing for the exhibition, Petra and Jeanne have managed to influence and inspire each other’s work, though they have been careful to give the other plenty of creative space. In their work, both women have chosen also to play with perspective. Petra for instance, explains that she prefers to zoom in and get close, photographing elements of her subjects instead of capturing them in their totality.
For Jeanne, her paintings seem to be about offering alternate interpretations. She says we can look forward to seeing her take on the iconic painting ‘The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq’ (you may know it as ‘The Night Watch’) by Rembrandt at the exhibition, but is reluctant to reveal more.
Jeanne also keeps her tongue firmly in cheek. “Most of the work is made with a lot of humour in it, because in our opinion humour is a glue that combines societies,” says Jeanne, explaining that her viewers should look out for it either in the subject, the style or the title of the work. |
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