Femmy Otten, 'And Life Is Over There', 2017

Center of The Hague: Spui - Grote Markstraat - Kalvermarkt

Unveiling: Saturday 21 October 2017, 17.15 hrs
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Location: Kalvermarkt (behind City Hall)
Interactive dance installation near the sculpture during Museumnacht Den Haag on 21 October >> read more

On Saturday 21 October 2017 the new sculpture And Life Is Over There by Femmy Otten will be added to The Sculpture Gallery in the city center of The Hague.  in het centrum van Den Haag. It is her first bronze sculpture in public space. In this totem-like and gender-blending sculpture various visual cultures are united. In all its peacefulness and vulnerability, the work is a statement about freedom of thought.

The work of Femmy Otten has many references to art from ancient Greece, Egypt, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Her magical universe is inhabited by mysterious, hybrid beings with elements of man, God and animal. Although her work often has an autobiographical feel, her sculptures are imbued with a classical and universal value.

Her new sculpture has references to nudes from classic Greek sculpture and is both male and female. For Otten this is the most ideal state of being: "The Greek god Hermaphroditus was literally merged with his beloved. Ever since I started drawing and making my work genders have effortlessly merged into each other. For me this feels very natural. I can identify with the one or with the other. To me it feels strange to view men and women as separate entities - we are so deeply involved with each other and our lives are so intertwined. I myself feel a deep urge to blend."
 
The nakedness and sexual ambiguity of And Life Is Over There also addresses issues like daring to be different and being allowed to be different. In this way the artist wants to generate a freedom of thought. She is not literally talking about the transgender, but more about the idea that everything should be allowed, also when it is different from the norm. That nudity is very natural and can be very disarming, that different genders and cultures can be united, that there is also a great tenderness in this completeness. Otten: "In this sculpture I was very much concerned with finding the right posture, it had to be perfectly natural. No shame and no explicit pride - to me that was very important."

The title of the sculpture, And Life is Over There, is a stanza from the love poem I Cannot Live With You by the American poet Emily Dickinson (1830-1886). The titles of Otten's work often refer to the poetry of Dickinson, in which she recognizes a feeling of loneliness, longing and disappointment and a desire to be (set) free.
 
Femmy Otten (Amsterdam, 1981), lives and works in The Hague. After graduating from academies in The Hague and Ghent she was a resident artist at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. In 2013 Otten was the winner of de Volkskrant Beeldende Kunstprijs and a year later she was one of the artists selected by the Dutch government to make an official portrait of King Willem-Alexander. Her work was included in various exhibitions in Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam; at Stroom Den Haag (2012); the 14th Istanbul Biennial (2015) and Stedelijk Museum Schiedam (2016). Recently she had a solo exhibition in the Ketelfactory in Schiedam (2017).
www.femmyotten.nl
www.fonswelters.nl

The Sculpture Gallery in The Hague is a concept and design by P. Struycken. Through its permanent character and yearly commissions it offers a unique format for art in public space and offers a cross section of Dutch sculpture since 1990. Curator of The Sculpture Gallery is André Kruysen. Project supervisor on behalf of Stroom is Vincent de Boer, advisor and coordinator art and public space.

Back to survey Sculpture Gallery

PRESS
Beelden Magazine, December 2017
Villa La Repubblica, 10 December 2017
Den Haag Centraal, 16 November 2017
de Volkskrant (column), 11 november 2017
de Volkskrant, 9 November 2017
Den Haag FM (Kunstlicht), 22 October 2017
(podcast interview: item starts at 24:18 min.)
De Telegraaf, 19 October 2017
Den Haag FM, 19 October 2017

21 Oct '17
Contact: Vincent de Boer