Marjan Laaper (1971)
Marjan Laaper 1971, graduated from WDKA’s Fine Arts Department in 1994. She was educated at the Maryland College of Art, Baltimore, USA and the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam, NL. She attended several residencies in the USA, Japan, China and Iceland.
She specializes in large-scale video projections, installations and Public Art Commissions. Simple everyday phenomena are being presented within a quite poetic, sometimes even philosophical framework. General human experiences, human thinking, nature, and the experience of everyday life are starting points in her work. Often there is a tension between contradictory subjects and symbols like beauty and danger, the immaterial and the transitory trust and alarm. The work does not give clear answers, but shows recognizable elements that generate questions.
Video installation: “The Gift” in Xiamen, China 2013
In 2013 she received a grant to work in Xiamen for 9 weeks. During her stay, she was fascinated by the urban surrounding in Xiamen where big LED screens where situated in the city center but also by the natural beauty of the mountains where the city was built around. Just like old poets and painters she wanted to bring an ode to nature and the mystery of life itself.
There she made the public artwork: “The Gift”. The work: “The Gift” (2013) shows two hands that are filmed from above. The hands are close together as if they were asking for something. After a while a small bird lands into the hands and makes it his residence for a short while. After some time, the bird flies away, leaving the hands waiting for the next gift.