Five questions for Lizzie Veldkamp

Who is Lizzie Veldkamp?

"I am a visual artist aged 26 and I live in Heerlen. I was born in Kerkrade, in an artistic nest. Both my parents are artists in their own way. I used to occupy myself a lot with drawing, but through the preliminary training I took after secondary school, I also learnt to appreciate working with other materials. A year and a half ago, I graduated in 'Fine Arts', at the Art Academy in Maastricht. Now I make a lot of sculptures and installations. That forms a big part of my artistic practice."

Lizzie continues: "For part of the week, I work for art platform Greylight Projects, as a production assistant. Among other things, I contribute to the composition of the programme here. For instance, I was recently actively involved in Atelier Karton, in which we worked with participants on ideas about the city and the future. For that, I then research what is happening in the city. That's where my interest lies."

What kind of art do you make?

"I am guided by materials that come my way, especially coarse materials. For example, I recently found a good piece of wood in a cistern, which I then take and work with. For my exhibition at SCHUNCK I started working with rain barrels and an old door, among other things. I process that material and eventually give it a visual aspect. In addition, I often work with plaster. My ultimate goal is to add layers to my work. I like it when you can see that there are different layers of time in an object. I want to make that process visible, for example that it flakes off. That transition is what I am interested in. Ultimately, the work has to interact with the space in which it stands, or is placed. I look in a space to see what is there, what colours or shapes are there, and then I often try to connect my own works with that. I want to create awareness about the influence of the context in which something is located. By this I mean the social context, but also the environment or the passage of time."

How did this way of working come about?

"I think it was mainly 'activated' in my final exam year, during my research project 'Hinter der Baustelle'. At the time of COVID, I couldn't go to the academy to work. I had only just lived in Heerlen, so I often went outside, for a walk, down the street. That got me thinking about working in public space. Heerlen has a lot of fallow land, which is very suitable for such work. That made me realise that in your environment you are very much influenced by rules, social control or things that change. Until then I was only doing visual work, at this point I start to realise that the things you do are in relation to what is happening around you."

Lizzie laughingly asks if we are still following. "It's hard to explain. I try to surrender to coincidences, and try to stay close to the realisation that I can't plan everything, but have to open up to what is and what is happening around me."

What will be on show at SCHUNCK?

"It will be an installation of all new works. The arrangement approaches a kind of playfulness. One of the nice things about the works that have emerged now is that, again, it's a collaboration between things that are already there and things I've created to give that meaning. I will give an example. There was a transport box at the SCHUNCK depot, which I liked. I asked if I could use it, and that was OK. Now I made a work that fits in that transport crate. That feels like a poetic approach between things that are in transition, moving around or in storage, and will soon become beauty in SCHUNCK instead."

Who do you hope will visit your exhibition?

"I hope that people who may not necessarily have much affinity or knowledge of art will still feel invited to look at the works with curiosity and think what they think of them. Whether it is beautiful, stupid or ugly, it will anyway give a new experience to the space it is in. The fact that my work will soon be in the public space is exactly what I like about it."

She concludes: "I don't necessarily think the average Heerlen inhabitant will recognise themselves in my work, but it always has to do with the transition in the city - that is really concrete Heerlen. A place with different time layers, which is never finished."