Page 33 - Enamel & More

Balance Points - Leontine Coelewij about enamel objects in Groningen (1989)

Was her work before 1980 primarily made in the non-colours white and black plus
all shades of grey in between, after 1980 Van Elk occupied herself more with mixing
colours and non-colours. In the series Crossings she crossed in oil pastel drawn tracks
and showed this way how a particular colour dominates visually the other colour. This
scrutiny for the action of colours, that is to a certain extent related to the murals of Sol
Lewitt. is also expressed in ‘Balance Points. All parts of this work were first coated with
a white or black ground. On top of that colours were applied but in such a way that the
ground would shimmer through the surface. On purpose Van Elk had the planes sprayed
not evenly, and certain planes Van Elk even painted by hand. The tactual, almost sensual
quality of the surface is much more important to Van Elk than to strive for industrial
perfection.

The abstract elements from which Balance Points is constructed all go back to the basic
forms that dominate Van Elks work from the mid-seventies: the circle and the rectangle.
These geometrical forms never were a compulsory straightjacket, but starting points for
new - accidental- personal compositions. This way, the contours of a circle could break
up in interrupted line segments when the circle was drawn on folded paper which was
unfolded afterwards. Van Elk always considered these forms as a concrete reflection of
an act, without reference to anything that occurs outside the mage. This work was, as
she herself described it, Scale 1:1. It is what you see, nothing more nothing less.
In Balance Points we see that Van Elk started again from the rectangular and the circle.
Now. however, she left room, more than previously, for associations that these forms
evoke. In the context of the school, where economical and administrative instruction is
given, we recognize a punched card in a rectangular plane with small round holes, in
two consecutive circles the cipher 8 and elsewhere the letter D. And the way the forms
are in balance evokes strongly the economical principle that revenues and expenditures
should slay in balance. However, though these forms sometimes remind us strongly of
objects in daily life. Van Elk never makes an image of an existing object. Her method is
much more to compare with that of Claes Oldenburg who takes objects from daily life,
blows them to monumental proportions and produces them in unexpected materials. I
his manipulation of size and attention for materiality are also typical for Van Elks Balance
Points. In this work the material ‘is not right’ either - a card with a string on a nail should
be of paper and not enamelled steel … with this Van Elk misguides the observer and
introduces a certain irony in a seemingly strict abstract composition. This is, by the
way, a clear tendency in Van Elks work in the last years. The strictness, the restraint
and the rigorousness has diminished in favour of a certain playfulness, irony and even
frivolity. Van Elk permits herself a much larger freedom which leads to a greater diversity
in colours, forms, references and associations. Balance Points is a striking point in this
development.

Leontine Coelewij
1989

◄ Work executed, enamel | Verrijn Stuart School, Groningen(1988) | photo Ferry André de la Porte
see text Leontine Coelewij

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