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Marloes Roeper (1998) feels drawn to moments in which little exciting happens and uses these for her paintings. Most of these are daily observations, for instance of how the light touches the branch of a tree, raindrops on a window, or reflections on the water. Moments that allow her to experience silence, not because they are soundless, but because they exist beyond time, as it were. Roeper registers moments like these, isolates them from their context, and then incorporates them in her paintings to hang on to them forever. In doing so, she not only preserves the images themselves, but also the associations and memories that go with them. Leaving no space for errors, she paints each piece during a single session, wet in wet, thereby imposing a restriction on herself that forces her to be decisive and focused.
A Family Matter (2025) consists of forty paintings that together visualize the continuous movement of windscreen wipers. The abstracted, rhythmic lines allude to the confined space inside a car. It is a place that offers a safe and tranquil environment for making connections, where you are forced to spend time with each other, in a positive sense. A bubble with room for conversation, but also a space where stagnation and movement seem to coincide. Roeper: ‘The windscreen wipers are simultaneously trivial and universal. They remind me of both my early childhood and more recent situations. But they are also symbolic of memories I have yet to make. To me they therefore represent moments that transcend time.’
Text: Esther Darley
Translated from Dutch by Marie Louise Schoondergang (The Art of Translation)