REPORTER OF THE INNER WORLD
The spiritualist’s compost heap

The drawings of Oonk may have a shamanic origin, however her work does not share a spiritual history in an aesthetic sense. The candy like pastel colours, Mandalas, fantasy creatures, psychedelic patterns and occult symbols which typify the New Age movement are nowhere to be seen - at most, an insider may find some mythical reference. Oonk’s visual language is not simply ‘traditional occult’. However, her work exercises its force on the viewer, who is drawn into a unsteady and dreamy world . The drawings function as membranes. Where do you go when you’re drawn in? Into the inner world of Oonk?

In all its simplicity it’s a shocking thought - every human being has an inner world. An invisible spiritual territory, where experiences, memories, fears and desires find refuge. A domain where fantasies and facts get entangled, where consciousness feeds on associations and references. The spirit’s compost heap. An elusive area where each spirit has its own place, usually inaccessible to third parties. Oonk gives the disembodied inner world stature and invites us in. It turns out to be an accessible terrain. Maybe all human inner worlds have corresponding vessels, elusively overlapping

The energy with which Oonk designs her inner world is quite appealing, as is the apparent ease with which she evokes visions at will. It’s as if she carries her personal virtual reality with her at all times. She doesn’t need drugs, religious games which transcend the banal nor does she surrender to an amalgam of escapism, reflection, comfort and fantasy. As an artist she operates as a reporter from the inner world. With her thought-provoking art she beats the manifestations from beyond the border where the conscious and unconscious melt together.

Richtje Reinsma
18 mei 2017