Vrouwe van de duinen (Lady of the Dunes) // Reflecting on my graduate thesis/project
Wow, it’s truly amazing how time marches on. This time two years ago I was finishing up my master’s degree and prepping for our final exhibition. In our last term The Glasgow School of Art had its second devastating fire and it turned all of our lives upside down. As a result I ended up changing my final project slightly and choose to travel to The Netherlands to complete my final visual work as I figured this would be the most productive way to cross the finish line of my degree. I turned my gaze inward and focussed on my relationship to my Dutch heritage and family.
Vrouwe van de duinen is a multi-channel video installation accompanied by a series of photographic images taken on site. The work was created at locations correlated with personal geographical ties and references the literal translation of the van Duin surname. Repetitive processes used to generate the work allude to traits associated with witte wieven (wise women) folklore, while entering the chosen landscapes represent the physical and metaphorical investigation into my Dutch identity and origins.
I chose to go outside of my comfort zone and worked with moving image as the bulk of my final thesis. I recorded scenes with three cameras simultaneously and the final result was a multi-channel installation where the viewer could stand in the middle of the space with sound cancelling headphones and feel as though they are in the surroundings. The audio recordings from the sites are paired with a poem about folklore featured in this area of The Netherlands narrated by a Dutch friend.
Degree show installation at The Garment Factory in Glasgow, Aug 2018.
Degree show installation at The Garment Factory in Glasgow, Aug 2018.
Considering this was my first real experience with moving image and definitely my first experience creating a multi-channel installation I’m pretty happy with what I made even two years later especially under the circumstances in which I had to complete my project. I certainly don’t miss waking up at four in the morning to walk over to the dunes for sunrise with three tripods and three dslrs (it was so heavy!) or the looks from early risers walking their dogs but I do miss the camaraderie of studying with others and having solid goals to work towards. Not to say that I don’t have things I’m working towards now but they’re very different goals.
While completing my video recordings I also took a series of self portraits, the ones below were front and back diptychs of the same locations to give more context of each location.
Although the self portraits I took at the same time were secondary to the video installation, they have remained some of my favourite self-portraits that I have ever done. It’s amazing how much personal meaning and significance can evolve over time in a body of work. I think I never shared this project because it was such a turbulent time with the fire and I was never proud of the work as it was quite rushed but upon reflection I’m proud of myself for pulling through and love some of the imagery. I think they hold more value now as they not only mark an achievement in my academic journey but the point in which I truly left behind being a student and started my life as an adult in the “real world”. The following portraits are my favourites of the bunch.
