REPORTER OF THE INNER WORLD
Organised visions

The images Oonk puts onto paper come from a source that is beyond her personal comprehension. They originate from an area without mass or coordinates, which remarkably enough recognises topographic boundaries and fixed locations like a small lake or just a valley. Oonk travels to these places with the aid of extensive rituals and meditation. At the source she enters a receptive state in which she visualises and organises the images or vision.

Oonk’s work offers an equally unpolished fairy tale look. There are bodies of people and animals, and emerging landscapes that seem physical. Often there are loose body parts, organs and many spines which are illustrated in her work. The positions and arrangements that they assume have a certain theatrical quality, as if they impersonate emotional conditions. Oonk’s figures give the impression that they are struggling or have struggled or are in a some form of process.

The figures are transformed onto paper in touching lines, energetic and adept. Her method involves an extensive variety of movements. Sometimes the lines look bright, scratchy and sharp, shifting from prudent to soft. For example in Brains (2015) you see a silhouette of a woman. From her head, painted with undiluted ink a tangle of pencil lines grow which are surrounded by a diluted ink stain that holds it all together. Her neck is curved, the lines tangled which gives a feeling of heaviness.

The image of the woman brings Atlas the son of a mythical god to mind. As punishment for a failed rebellion he had to carry the world on his shoulders. However the burden of this woman rises from her head. Although she looks unenviable, she offers a faint glimmer of hope. Maybe this is due to her disproportionate brains and voluminous hair which is painted in light diluted ink, as if you can see through it. The image conjures up a transparent growth somewhat gracefully even, like a lady wearing an 18th century wig.