Catheline H. van den Branden

Artist Statement

My work centers on expressions of weavings. Through them, I explore our universal attempts at making sense of our world, setting systems for ourselves, only to see them unravel or even consciously provoking their very destruction. We live in the illusion of an environment we try to create and control. I think of us as human paradoxes, absurd, even comical at times, weaving our beautiful, complex journeys as we continue to forge ahead toward the ultimate end, making connections, trying to heal our and each others’ wounds, unravelling and stitching our torn selves back together as best we can. Like many, my personal story includes struggles and a lot of movement. Movement between continents, countries, languages, relationships, and careers. The line that my path has traced is winding, with detours broken in parts but continually seeking its way forward in loops and leaps, great and small, always under construction. In my artwork, the path, the line comes to me as thread, like the threads I saw pass so many times through my grandmother’s fingers when she knitted beside me, chatting with me, retelling her stories, the words coming as her fingers danced. Through my own fingers, it is not thread, but illusions of thread through which illusions of weaves and knits appear. I look at these simile-weavings as a metaphor for our own mysterious, colourful journeys. Through various media I try to express my anxious optimism as I forge ahead, with the humour and drama that hide in all of us.

Instagram: @cathelinestudio