Lisette de Greeuw (°1990) works in, around and through language, using transformation as a method and translation as a matter.

My work consists of series that often span multiple years and exist simultaneously alongside each other. My working methods overlap: I use repetition, time, and the removal of matter to create new material. Systems and their 'errors' often play an important role in this process. Currently, I am working on two series that I will explain below.

The first series originated from observing how living in Belgium has shaped my language. The way I construct a sentence no longer corresponds with the way I was taught to do so. In the second language I speak, I miss subtleties, which causes language to become simplified. The transition between textile and language is something that is central to my work. The words textile and text both stem etymologically from the Latin word 'texere', which means 'to weave': to construct, to fabricate. This led to making schematic drawings based on cross-stitch patterns, where each sign represents a cross-stitch in a specific color. I consider the signs as a language: a rule-based system with meanings that we define together. I transform these drawings into other forms to expose the limitations and enrichments of language and translation. During this continuous process, I repeatedly ask the question: does language form meaning or does meaning form language?

The second series started from the idea that the aforementioned schematic drawings function as 'tools' toward 'the real work'. This brought me to the idea of developing drawing materials that can exist as standalone works. Within this series, there are two tracks. In one track, I refer to a not-yet-existing image, an image that you still have to draw yourself. As in the installation many shades of a future work, where the work consists of a palette of 1008 different colors so that you have all the 'tools' at hand to draw whatever you want. The other track starts from an existing image that is broken down into different colors. A work within this context is based on the image of a moldy mandarine, whose bright orange surface is slowly taken over by mold. A mold that slowly makes the mandarine disappear and takes over. From this image, I investigate processes of transformation and decay. When does a mandarine stop being a mandarine, how is a mandarine defined, and when does that definition fall apart?

My artistic practice has been generously supported by Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds (Jan van Heel Fonds and Fonds 5), Genootschap Noorthey, Flanders State of the Art, Fonds Kwadraat and Mondriaan Fund.