Description
About the book
This publication covers Sarah Joy Swarts’ artist residency at FLACC Workplace for Visual Artists in Genk (2016-2017).
The project ‘Jardins Coulés’ focused on the artist’s grandfather, who dreamed of being a tropical botanist. After returning from the Dutch colonies for military service, he accepted a job offer in the Limburg mines. The coal, the main produce of these mines, is the remnant of prehistorical tropical plants. A reflection on how her grandfather indirectly worked as a ’tropical botanist’, was the starting point for the project. It resulted in numerous small and large paintings collected in this publication – a diary of the artistic process.
Text written by art historian and curator Stef Van Bellingen. In collaboration with FLACC Genk. Graphic design by Atelier Petit.
Title: Jardins Coulés
Artist: Sarah Joy Swarts
Year: 2017
Edition: 500
Pages: 64
Format: 20 x 26 cm, softcover
Price: 25 euros (excl. shipping costs)
About the Artist:
Sarah-Joy Zwarts (Maastricht, 1987) studied Fine Arts at KASK Ghent, with a focus on drawing. She sees her current work as an extension of this and prefers to approach her subjects as they are, in all their honesty and with an appreciation for their history and character. From this point of view, she uses an open methodology in which the notion of gesture is given as much value as the result.
According to her, the direct link that drawing has with reflection provides the most logical way to approach this state of wonder (cf. ‘Spielraum’). She tries to apply this method in her own series by choosing form and material as close to her subject as possible. By conditionally providing these near-to-the-skin conditions, her images can form themselves during the process, in direct interaction with reflection, expressing themselves in the most powerful way.
In addition to her work as a visual artist, Sarah contributes as a teacher at the Architecture Academy Maastricht and is connected in various ways to the Arts Decree of the Flemish Government. She covers her visual process once a year in a concise artist’s publication.
