Claire Verkoyen, visual artist
Artist statement
I am a visual artist situated in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. In my work reference to old primal methods of ‘making’ or ‘constructing’, is vital. Hand crafted utensils which mankind has been making and developing since early times, are for me of particular interest. One of the most basic materials man made use of is clay. Through the ages no material can be found which was so easy to find, so close at hand and which has known such a variety in directly useful applications.
My starting point being ‘making’ as a basic hands-on way of ‘understanding’, I try from there to draw a line into the future, or into what is my intuitive perception of the future, where ‘making’ can be viewed in intertwined ways of producing, growing and constructing. Imagining and creating post human realities can represent a different view on our technological and biological continuum.
A small biography
I was born in 1959 as the third of four children on the Isle of Curacao in the Dutch Antilles, a former colony of the Netherlands. My parents moved to the island shortly after they got married, driven by a desire for adventure. They were fortunate that at that time the Dutch government was in need of primary school teachers on the island and they quickly settled. When I was two years old, we returned to The Netherlands and I spent my childhood in a small Catholic village in the south of the country. When I was eighteen I left The Netherlands for Paris, France, where I studied Arts Plastiques for three years. Back in the Netherlands I continued my art studies at the Academy St. Joost in Breda where I graduated from the Department of Ceramics in 1984. In 1985 I moved to Amsterdam, where I still live today. Alongside my work as an artist, I am head of the ceramics studio at Amsterdam’s Gerrit Rietveld Art Academy. I am married and I have two children.