Spotlight: Annemarie Deckers
Project Title: In Minor Key
Artist Statement:
My project “In Minor Key” is about my profound sense of alienation, a feeling that seems to have been part and parcel of me for many years. I have always felt like an outsider. Recently this feeling has become more pronounced now I am living in a society which is very different from what I am used to, in its ways of thinking, its mentality. My work is deeply pervaded with a sense of melancholy, this ultimately very undefined feeling of yearning (without necessarily knowing for what exactly) and loss. It casts a dark spell over the world around me, both the domestic environment and the outside world. In my work I draw on a long tradition of works, stemming from literature and the visual arts, which depict or create a sense of melancholy. I search for a sense of beauty to try to counter these emotions. I aim to create a fictional world as a counterbalance for our everyday life. It is an exploration of the way we construct our identity and try to find a place in a world that feels completely alien at times. I do not shy away from this profound sense of melancholy but try to reshape it through my work and give it a sort of beauty of its own. At times these efforts are bound to fail and destruction and despair take over in my images. At other times they lead to more poetic images that want to evoke a range of emotions in the viewer and try to counter the darkness with beauty and imagination.
Bio:
Annemarie Deckers grew up in Belgium and is currently living in Athens, Greece. She studied literature and literary theory at the University of Leuven and also holds a degree in Cultural Studies. She uses a conceptual approach to explore themes and emotions, such as loss, melancholy, dreams, our relations with others and the never ending process of (re)defining who we are and of trying to find our own voice and place in the world. She tries to evoke a range of emotions in the viewer and to counter the darkness with beauty and imagination.
You can find more here: Instagram: @annemarie.deckers Website: https://annemariedeckers.com/
