Maria Roosen (1957)
Maria Roosen creates sensual sculptures made of coloured glass, wool, leather, wood, papier mâché and gold leaf. Recurring themes in her oeuvre are fertility, growth, femininity and masculinity and human relations. A characteristic feature of Roosen’s working method is that she allows her ideas to mature slowly and always produces her work in close collaboration with artisans such as glass blowers, carpenters and knitters. Roosen: ‘I let things grow. I sow the seed and then turn to other people to help grow the crop. I manage and guide the process – you could actually say I’m the artist with the green thumb.’*
Based on her conviction that imagination can make life more pleasant and bearable, Roosen is pleased to offer a counterbalance to reality through her work. ‘I think it’s sad to see that people can no longer be enticed or surprised by something.’** Roosen’s work became well-known in 1995 when she provided the Dutch submission to the Venice Biennial together with Marlene Dumas and Marijke van Warmerdam. She created jugs, busts and spermatozoids from coloured glass blown by professional glass blowers. Roosen views glass as solidified energy because it is always possible to retrace the process of making and handling it. Roosen received the Wilhelmina Ring for her entire oeuvre in 2006 and was awarded the Singer Award in 2009.
* Press Release issued by the Wilhelmina Ring Foundation, Apeldoorn, October 2006
** V. Klaassen et al, ‘Maria Roosen’, unlocked # 02 Rabo Art Collection, Eindhoven 2005, p. 188
