Mirjam van Baardwijk

My fascination with the various facets of daily life mixed with fantasy images is central. My work consists of photo’s, paintings, drawings and collages. After my study at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, I had several exhibitions and also had an exchange program with the Art school in Budapest, where I became fascinated with black and white photography and printing photographs in a lab. I made photographs of daily life in Budapest, empty houses, streets, people and worked on a project called bathrooms and people.

 

Travel notebooks

I became fascinated with Asia the moment I put my foot on the soil. Especially the inscrutability and multiplicity of India. Asia is an inexhaustible source of inspiration for me. When I travel, I take along my notebooks and fill them with drawings and collages, which I keep as a special meaning for myself. I sometimes transform them into moving images which results in an animated film.

 

Guestrooms

During my travels I captured all the rooms I slept in. I reveal through my drawings of all the rooms I have seen, the mysteries they hold, the memories and the dreams. In the vibrant colors of these rooms I describe the segments of dreams where fantasy and reality meet. When I travel, I move and my ideas move with me and explode. Movement creates space for fantasizing and imagination. When my mind becomes curious I start drawing.

 

Photography

I love to take photo's at unexpected moments. Just to hold the image in a frame you create at that moment. All the wonders and emotions of that moment, are captured in that one photograph and will stay forever.