In the summer of 2024, Huis Marseille will show new work by the Dutch photographer Awoiska van der Molen (Groningen, 1972). Van der Molen, often known for her nature photography, photographed the urban environment shortly after her graduation in 2003. She now shows us again subdued black and white photos of the built environment with traces of human presence. This time she zooms in on illuminated windows in the darkness of the evening.
Around 2015, Van der Molen started a new direction in her work. Where she used to photograph landscapes with the occasional house in the picture, she now travels from the wilderness to small villages and looks through windows at life inside.
During a trip to the southern islands of Japan, she is struck by the traditional construction of thin-walled houses, where the sounds inside remain muffled to only monotonous noises. This windows intrigue her, leading to several trips through Japan.
From a distance she observes daily life behind the windows, where the frosted glass creates a mystery by hiding the inner world from view.
Through the windows you catch a hopeful glimpse of the life going on behind it, but you have no real contact with it.
Van der Molen's photographs require slowness in their creation, materialization and viewing. During her silent movements through the dark, she captures the muted world around windows. In the dark room she slowly allows her images to emerge, weeks after photographing them.
For her exhibition in Huis Marseille, in addition to her well-known silver gelatin prints, she also opts for the carbon printing technique from the nineteenth century. This labor-intensive technique, with its deep, relief-rich black, emphasizes the play of shadows in her photos and requires patience and time from both the photographer and the viewer to fully comprehend the image.
Van der Molen's photographs of illuminated windows function as a screen between the photographer and the world, symbolizing the separation between an inner and outer world. While the aesthetics stand out, loneliness and melancholy seep through.
"I only take photographs when all the noise has disappeared and there is no longer any sense of time." ~ Awoiska van der Molen
The windows offer a glimpse of life behind the glass without making any real contact, representing both the desire for connection and comfort with distance.
Her nature photographs, in shades of black, gray and white, taken between 2009 and 2021, attempt to visualize the essence of a place and our deeper connection with the earth. Her work arises from moments of pure concentration, without distraction, where the deeper layers of meaning are especially palpable.
Van der Molen's first monograph, Sequester, was nominated for the 2014 Paris Photo/Aperture First Book Prize and received a silver medal for “Best Books from Around the World” in Leipzig. Her second book, Blank, published in 2017 and published in 2020 The Living Mountain.
The Humanness of Our Lonely Selves - Awoiska van der Molen
June 22, 2024 - October 13, 2024
More info at the website of Huis Marseille
