Artist: HJIMvanGasteren

Lambda colorprint, mounted on Diasec, 80x120cm, Edition of 3

Award winning multimedia artist HJIMvanGasteren (Henriëtte Johanna Ignatia Maria van Gasteren), formerly known as Lilith, was born in 1964 in Sevenum, the Netherlands.  She has been widely exhibited, throughout Europe and the U.S.
She uses self-portraits to provide a commentary on the image of women today.  Recurring themes in her work include identity, gender roles, freedom, equality, religion and the positive and negative aspects of human experience.  Her work is sometimes humorous, often sensual, frequently confrontational, and always original and insightful.
Her work belongs to international museumcollections and is frequently collected by contemporary art collectors.
Henriëtte currently resides and works in the Netherlands.

Artist statement                                                                                                                                                            

The Dutch art-photographer Henriëtte van Gasteren interprets the current image of women in a humorous, ironic and, at times, painfully realistic manner in her varied images. Her images are generated with the help of remote-control and self-timer, and they are shot in and around her house-cumstudio, as a guest in others’ homes or in what appear to be bland, interchangeable hotel rooms. Her images are characterised by one common thread—that of humanity uprooted. In these portraits, Henriëtte serves as her own model. She dresses differently and strikes different poses in each image. Her images portray a sample of female stereotypes in a sensitive and sophisticated manner. Color and light are critical to Henriëtte’s self-portraits. In addition, as a metteur-en-scène, she devotes special attention to clothing, make-up and props.

A house shows who we are and over 5 years Henriëtte shared her home and garden with her audience. Every corner of the room appears in her extraordinary photography.

 ‘A house is not a home’

In 2012, the time had come for a change. Henriëtte experimented with changing locations for a series of self-portraits. After placing an ad in the local newspapers, dozens of home owners, most of whom were unknown to the artist, offered up their homes as sets for her self-portraits. She then visited the houses for the shoots, with the owners giving her their house keys and carte blanche to use their house as she wished, usually without the presence of the owner. Henriëtte, in both her life and in her work, actively engages with her environment. She searches for the new and the strange to unearth its artistic possibilities, sometimes with surprising results. These encounters have changed her photography but it still remains unmistakably ‘Henriëtte’.

Servant

‘The anatomy lesson of Dr. Jan Deijman – inreverse’.                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Do women go under the knife to fix their body or to put their mind at ease?

‘Dear Dr. Jan Deijman, please do feel free to put your scalpel into my defenseless flesh. No matter how much you cut into my body, you can’t penetrate my mind. No doctor or surgeon can succeed in reaching the inner sanctum of my mind. My mind is an intangible object, well beyond anyone’s reach.’

Collections                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Works of Henriëtte van Gasteren are included in the collections of Jewish Historical Museum, Amsterdam; Museum AktFotoArt, Dresden; Museum Bommel van Dam, Venlo; Limburgs Museum, Venlo; Museum Ikob, Eupen (Belgium); Torch Gallery, Amsterdam; ASN Nederland, Amsterdam; Museum W, Weert; Eduard Planting Gallery, Naarden; Coda Museum, Apeldoorn; Galerie Mi, Bilthoven, Galerie vorn und oben, Eupen (Belgium); Zuyderland Ziekenhuis, Heerlen.