Astrid Vlasman

Astrid Vlasman is a visual artist from Leiden. She works a lot on large canvases and covers them with torn paper. These papers are applied layer by layer and some parts are painted with transparent oil paint. The bottom layers therefore remain visible. The layering of various types of paper of different thickness ensures a paper "skin". She stains the pieces of paper with a bookbinder glue and a palette knife and fixes them. "I like the liveliness of paper, the function it has had as a vegetable bag, tea bag or wrapping paper for shoes, for example. I use school tests that my children leave behind, tax envelopes, gift wrap, pattern paper; all daily material that passes through our fingers. The volatility of old paper is cherished and embedded by me and appreciated as a means of expression with which I shape my work." Tearing / pasting what Astrid does is not a trick, not an act of speed. It forces her to come into contact with the work as a maker, shipper by shipper. The paper in her hands means freedom, space and the possibility of endless creation. A technique that you are already given as a toddler. Tearing challenges creativity, there is looseness in shape and color, it cannot be too precise. The imperfections in the work expose the soul of the maker. "In my performances I try to show the inside, the bottom layer, the hidden side. The subconscious forces that are active." Despite this old tear and paste technique, the work itself is about people today. We see them in uncomfortable situations or in strange positions. People who look lost into the world, who don't really know what to do. People who do not know where to go, who hardly show themselves to the world but who are captured at a moment in their own inner reality. In addition, Astrid looks at the place that man occupies, makes himself familiar and the traces he leaves behind. She paints abandoned spaces with paper. Rooms and kitchens where it seems that someone is just present. The human traces are still visible. Interiors that radiate homeliness. No clean rooms with sleek furniture, but cupboards with skewed doors, rickety chair legs and expired wallpaper. Traces of residents are present.

Furthermore, a series of papier-mâché chairs is part of the work of Astrid. They are recognizable models but also fantasy chairs. The chair skews during the drying process, giving it its own character. They become clumsy, bumbling objects that together form a growing army of chairs.

Astrid Vlasman
Email Address: vlaswerk@gmail.com
0628512052