Paty Berendsen - ArtEZ Alumni Index

When a child is put up for adoption. It’s a life-changing moment. A crucial moment, but there’s never photos of it. Here I start to wonder what those situations could be. ‘Pick me up’ is a sculptural work where the viewer is invited to play/puzzle with the blocks. In the paintings it’s not clear if there is a parent, or someone related nearby. I hope that there is, but it is not always the case, otherwise adoption cannot exist, right? I am showing what’s already out there. It’s there in the painting on the cubes, but it’s just as hard to notice as in real life.

In ‘Nuqayku’ the canvas painting is about displacing two environments in one painting.

In ‘Ayllu’ the viewer can flip the painted panels and view the other side. In short: It’s about how I am connected to people whom I don’t know at all.

ARTIST BIO

23 years ago it was different, at the age of 2 years old, I was put up for adoption from Peru to the Netherlands. This impacted my life, which later became part of my art practice. This opens up a lot of questions in connection to my own identity. Through paintings, and charcoal drawings, I express myself in art and try to find my true self. I work in my art with the feeling of displacement, because of my adoption. The medium of painting is for me always a challenge. I like to give it something extra. To make it more interactive, playful and not that straight forward.