It's Not About Me

Elsemarijn Bruys

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‘It’s Not About Me’ is the first solo exhibition by Elsemarijn Bruys (1989, NL) at Heejsteck#. On display are reinterpretations of classics from Bruys’s oeuvre, such as the PUFF, MORPH and WARP. At the same time, there is space for experimentation with forms and materials, enabling the exhibition to provide a clear insight into the artist’s practice. The whole forms a hall of mirrors of minimal interventions with maximum effect.

 

With her artworks and installations, Elsemarijn Bruys challenges two basic elements that are always around us: light and air. Specifically, she challenges the way we humans are accustomed to experiencing them: as something self-evident that is made to “make sense” by the brain. Bruys' works are ingenious interventions in space – a break with the normal course of events – that sharpen the viewer's senses in a way that is often as simple as it is effective.

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Using reflective materials, bold colours and rhythmic repetition as key tools, Bruys intervenes in the existing environment. Whether this is an exhibition hall, a festival site or a living room, the starting point is always to pleasantly disrupt the spatial experience. In this sense, Bruys is a manipulative minimalist who plays with truth as we know it. When we are confronted with our environment in a new, slightly alienating way, which reality do we experience as the “real” one?

 

The title of the exhibition, It’s Not About Me, has multiple meanings. Bruys deliberately works with the repulsive and attractive effect that reflective materials exert on the viewer. It is a human reflex to immediately focus on one’s own body as it is reflected and distorted by mirrors. The title serves as a gentle reminder not to be preoccupied solely with one’s own reflection, but to allow oneself to be drawn into the stimulating overall experience of light, air and space.

 

Although Bruys’s artworks are highly recognisable, the artist’s hand is rarely visible in the smooth finish. As a result, the work does not appear personal but rather stands on its own in relation to its immediate surroundings. Yet the underlying reason why she creates precisely this type of work is very personal. The work is about taking up space, standing out, making an impression; themes that also play a role in the artist’s own life.