C104 Review

Tjibbe Hooghiemstra: Island, 2002, egg tempera, chalk, pencil, collage; courtesy Model Arts and Niland Gallery

 

Sligo: Tjibbe Hooghiemstra at Model Arts and Niland

Tjibbe Hooghiemstra's kinship to Ireland is apparent in his painting. In his practice we witness a poetic, sensory response to nature, landscape and literature. Composed of 48 individual works on paper and canvas, Nightflight, resists straightforward classification. The paintings are characterised by restraint in terms of colour and composition, while also possessing a fragmentary quality.

Paradoxically, although this body of work was created in Ireland within a one-year period and although it is thematically linked, the interassociation of these fragments is insufficient and ultimately frustrates the viewer's hope to construct a coherent narrative. These paintings remain enigmatic and half-glimpsed; the titles are as generic - wood, landscape, boat - as the compositions are implacable. Recurrent elements such as the lake, boat and island are essentially diagrammatic symbols of the objects they represent and each work offers a question mark rather than an answer.

Hooghiemstra is based in Fryslan in the Netherlands, but is a frequent visitor and regular exhibitor in Ireland. His love of Ireland is merely hinted at in this series. The works are minimal combinations of pencil marks, brush strokes, textual elements and collage. Some of the textual inclusions show the influence of Celticism and early Irish.

When writing of his work in 1999, Jurrie Poot of the Stedelijk Museum pointed out that the literal meaning of the Dutch word for 'drawing' is 'making signs'. This lends a degree of clarity to Hooghiemstra 's approach. Each carefully orchestrated element in these compositions acts as a signifier of the emotive aspects of the artist's habitual environment. He focuses on the prosaic aspects of life, inconsequential moments in nature that are often overlooked.

Tjibbe Hooghiemstra: The boathouse, 2002, egg tempera, chalk, pencil, collage; courtesy Model Arts and Niland Gallery

The paintings often bear resemblance to ink blots and function in a similar manner as psychological triggers of past experience and buried emotions. There is certainly the impression that recurrent signifiers, such as the lake, boat and island, are of major personal import to the artist. Throughout this series the human figure is peculiarly absent, but is often suggested by the basic shapes of the empty boats and boathouses. Each enigmatic work possesses a childlike naivety. Objects are loosely indicated with pencil lines and a wash of colour. Like flash cards, there is a loose rendition of a given subject and its name written nearby. Each painting, be it the dark-stained canvases or works on paper, is remarkably simple and yet very deliberately conceived. This directness of approach and intuitive quality reminds the viewer that these cryptic paintings are in fact symbolic renderings of felt experience.

The importance of Ireland to the artist is emphasised in the work. He has tapped into what Frances Ruane described as "the Irish preference for indirect statement" in landscape painting, and he is determined that his painting both conceals and reveals in equal measure. It is difficult to capture what lies beneath the visual surface, as this is Hooghiemstra's instinctive response to his surroundings, a personal account. Patrick Collins described this quest for expressing the imagination. "You don't believe in the thing you're painting, you believe in the thing behind what you're painting. You destroy your object, yet you keep it."

Hooghiemstra's painting retains only shadowy associations with his subjects. His respect for the past and love of literature, also a familiar Irish predilection, is demonstrated in his use of old discoloured notebook pages as the bases for his paintings. In general terms, parallels in approach can be drawn between Hooghiemstra, Mark Joyce's painting of the early nineties, and fellow Dutchman Arno Kramer. There is the same emphasis on draughtsmanship, sparseness of elements, naivety of expression and muted colour range.

The accompanying catalogue is an artwork in itself. The lyrical quality of the paintings is accentuated through Hooghiemstra's collaboration with Belfast-based poet John Brown. There is no essay or interview. Instead a number of the works on paper are reproduced in large-scale format alongside short poems composed by Brown in response. The poetry and paintings are equally equivocal and only serve to fuel the viewer's wonder. The artist/poet alliance appears to be highly successful in contemporary terms and this publication, like Caiseal na gCorr with Jan Voster and Cathal O Searcaigh functioning in partnership, demonstrates the fervour and passion with which creative practitioners can inspire one another.

Marianne O'Kane is Curator of Cavanacor Gallery, Lifford and Lecturer on the Boston University Internship Programme.

Tjibbe Hooghiemstra: Nightflight, Model Arts and Niland Gallery, Sligo, April -June 2003

Article reproduced from CIRCA 104, Summer 2003, pp. 84-85.