The textile works of Aafke Bennema give the impression of liquid processes that arise and flow away. They seem to consist of unstable elements that have to do with an undertone that resounds in our current society.
According to the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, these modern times are fluid, flexible and uncertain. Everything is constantly changing. This time is fragmentary and depends on short projects, which hardly form a coherent whole.
The rope and textile works of Aafke Bennema contain an internal dynamic. They arise as a constant succession of various constructions. The process of creation can be observed in the work. Countless sequential, logical and illogical decisions are made, with everything in permanent contact with previously completed sections. Sometimes they literally move along. In this way, both the creation of the work and the result are fluid: all elements influence each other constantly and are in motion.
Aafke Bennema tries to capture natural processes, which are erratic and unpredictable. Yet each work has its own logic and its own way of creating. She directs her own intuition. In rope and textile works she uses the old techniques such as knotting, weaving and embroidery. In some works, tribal figures can appear and on the spot merge into modernist fragments. Organic forms, landscape and more abstract expressions coexist in her oeuvre.
Aafke Bennema relates to the world arounds her and understand the world through self-created systems, which are expressed in my work. In these systems, principles of order and chaos alternate. Harmonious and dissonant parts can make connections with each other. Separate parts and open fragments with holes can form an equal part of the structure and composition of the work.
@aafkebennema
