Bettina van Haaren

Bettina van Haaren’s works are perceptions of self. Pictorial spaces do not exist independently, they are comprised of objects, they are dependent on the subject. They form around the figure, evolving from the body’s stretching, postures and axes: the figure creates space for itself through past and future potential actions, oscillates between losing itself in the unfamiliarity and uncertainty of existence (Da-Sein) in a constant process of searching and understanding. Then there are the things that go to make up the body, perceived objects in the interaction, part of the figure. They offer resistance and respond to one another. Isolated, trenchant and simultaneous, they demand active attention, awareness and review. They also call for the retracing and rethinking of references and processes, even if all the objects in the picture are frozen, as if in a still life.