Advent - M.Schuurman: The other side of the door

Margje Schuurman: At the Other Side of the Door

by Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker

Margje Schuurman (1988) is a young Dutch artist, who is fascinated by the beauty and the deep layers of meaning in the ‘ordinary’ and ‘simple’ things of life. To convey and celebrate this meaning and beauty, she makes drawings, paper cuts, glass works and installations. One of the things that draws her to installation art, is the importance of connecting with a particular place. By acquainting herself with this place and the people who come there, works can materialize that fit in and belong there. In 2011 she made At the Other Side of the Door for an exhibition in and around the buildings of the Faculty of Behavioral and Social Sciences of the University of Groningen. This work was placed in the Hortus, an old university garden designed to show the wonders of the world. The cut-out door suggests there is another world we can step into (literally in this case), like when we move into a new home, in a different country perhaps. The work may also refer to death or to a spiritual reality that is only a passage through a thin door away from us. Light is suggestively coming through the trees behind the door, while shadows darken the front – but another time of day and different weather will evoke another set of associations. The work makes me think of C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It seems to be a child after all, who is passing through the door. If you look well, however, the child may not be moving away from us but coming towards us. From this other reality someone is coming towards us! And the door is a person! This well-constructed work gives the attentive passer-by plenty to ponder.

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Margje Schuurman: At the Other Side of the Door, 2011, wooden door, paint, 250 x 110 cm.