“In my imagery, I look for vulnerable, transient intimacy”

Melancholy is a recurring emotion in Anna J. van Stuijvenberg’s work. Melancholy in the sense of loss, homesickness, fading away and being forgotten. Her work is an attempt to visualise this emotion.

The artist recognised the basis for this emotion in A(rt)ssenede in the town of Assenede (Belgium), where she came across a derelict house with a neglected garden in the midst of other, well-maintained buildings. She was touched by her awareness of the place and her wonder regarding the vulnerability of the moment – one of personal reunion – brief yet intense.
Ever since, the place has recurred in her work. The artist dissects the location in Assenede for all the practicable aspects it hides. Perhaps it's the lineage of the bare trees and bushes in the garden. Or the skin on the walls of the house. Maybe she looks at the interplay of light and shadow that has a life of its own since van Stuijvenberg took a black and white of the location. Yet it may also relate to an unforeseen event in the garden.
Whatever her focus, it always relates to dissecting and unravelling these aspects and their associated emotions. The house and garden have numerous unsuspected features that the artist has been highlighting since back in 2001. Always more or less recognisable, they are inevitably subjected to her strict direction and generate striking answers.