Nathalie Vanheule – The beauty of vulnerability

[Reading time: 6 minutes]

How can poetic art actually be explained? Strangely enough, not by using words. It comes through the senses. As so happened when l looked at the Instagram photos of Nathalie Vanheule. Even a short glance had sufficed to directly sense the emotional power of her works which move between performance, sculptures and video installations. Trying to discover this phenomenon, I am eagerly heading to Kortrijk in Belgium to meet the artist personally.

As soon as I enter the studio, I notice that the poetic is also reflected in the ambience of the room. Surrounded by Regency furniture and a beautiful fireplace decorated with stucco, her artworks present themselves in a setting reminiscent of the stage set of romantic dramas.

And Nathalie Vanheule herself? She seems to be the epitome of the poetic. Even if it may now sound exaggerated: There is something angelic about her.

As soon as we meet each other there is a feeling as if we have known each other for a very long time. A feeling of connectedness, which continues to deepen naturally during our conversation.

It quickly becomes clear how strongly her works are intertwined with her personality. They literally grow out of her. While I had still assumed that her latest works would be paintings on canvas, she surprises me by telling me that the priming is sandpaper, and that the movements of her body coated in body lotion and make-up formed the motifs.

Nathalie: The motifs are traces of my emotions transferred to the material. Depending on the mood, stronger or more delicate patches are created which form an image. I want to show the marks of life and so reveal something that we more often attempt to conceal. While trying to achieve perfect beauty and the perfect life, we often just move on the surface. Dark moments and transience are blocked out and covered up.

In my sandpaperworks, these thoughts are also reflected via the material. Sandpaper, usually called abrasive paper, and make-up are produced for the beautification of surfaces. Sandpaper is often used to make wood smooth and then thrown away. I use it as the substrate, and it so becomes an essential part of my work. The framing in wood, too, reflects this thought. A natural material with a perfect surface frames a material that has visibly been manufactured industrially. Visibly, because traces of the machines can be seen.

E.B.: You mean these linear stripes in the background?

Nathalie: Yes, exactly. The fact that they become the background is also part of my conceptual idea. By overlaying these traces with my movements, I symbolically place the strength of humanity over that of engineering. A hint of our era which shows up the increasing dislodgment of these forces.

I look around and discover a photo. The strong light-dark contrast of the image space is dominated by the head of a woman with long, light-blonde hair, wildly entangled by ropes. Although her head is largely obscured by the tangle, she looks confidently and at the same time secretively directly at the viewer. A modern interpretation of Medusa?

Nathalie: Indeed, a motif from my Medusa series. As in the story from Greek mythology, her physical beauty takes centre stage. But while, in the ancient story, this beauty is going to be her undoing and she is initially forcefully seduced by Poseidon and, on top of that, changed into a monster by the jealous Athene, my Medusa can decide how she acts with her body and her emotions in order to – in the metaphorical sense – either stay human or become a monster.

E.B.: Is it a feeling of being entrapped by her emotions, or is the focus on the involvement with her own emotions?

Nathalie: One can see it either way. In particular, there is envy and jealousy coming from the outside – at whose mercy Medusa is – that wants to kill her and overtake her voice for decisions. My Milk Medusa refers to the birth of a new Medusa. She is a beautiful woman, who can decide about her own emotions, body and seduction. A self determinate woman, who is in charge of her own acts and appearance. The dealing with liberation, freedom and emotions is ultimately a subject that determines many of my works, very often also my performances.

E.B.: What are the tasks required for the visualisation within a performance?

Nathalie: The task is to completely engage with another person and let go of the own ego. The objective is to create the basis for an emotional connection, thereby creating a basis for empathy with another person. To give an example: I give rise to such moments together with my performers via long lasting embraces which appear to be almost symbiotic.

E.B.: With you using this approach, which apparently aims for a transformation of negative to positive energy, how could one explain your partiality for the elements fire and ash which conjure up directly destruction and death?

Nathalie: My biography can explain this partiality. I was born in Ypres, a town situated at the front line of the two world wars, now surrounded by English and Canadian cemeteries. Destruction, transience and death were topics always present for me.

I grew up with a feeling that I would only become 18 years old. To deal with this feeling, I used to draw and write poetry every night during my whole childhood. I didn’t die, but parts of my personality did, when my mother died a few weeks before my 18th birthday. I had to question life, myself, and rebuild everything. 15 years later, three very close family relatives died in one week. They were barried at the day I would give birth to my daughter. I felt paralyzed in my emotions and a deep wound of loss.

Through my art, the support of artists friends and my family I came out this fase. In this time, I felt the urge to work with fire and ashes, as it renews and it can bring energy. Death is a necessary phase in the cycle of nature, as is evident in the burning of fields, where ash is used as a means of fertilising. In many cultures, African, Buddhism and in the Catholic Churches ash is a symbol for a positive change in a transition time. I felt this power of ashes so strongly and allowed it to intensely infuse my works. The result was the different kinds of ash paintings made out of ashes and pigment, as well as video works.

E.B.: This is an excellent explanation of your video-work Burning Eyes. A woman lying motionless on the floor is rained on by more and more ash and wakes up when she is completely covered in it.

E.B.: But what is the story here about the “badminton arms” and the shuttlecocks?

Nathalie: They were part of my performance Arms and Echoes, as well as the black net next door. The bats are sculptured, inspired on the form of my own arms, and I used my own fingers to blacken the net with ash. So, without having participated in the performance, I was physically present in a subtle kind of way. 

My performers were given the task to act without structure or rules, thus deconstructing a game that is normally subject to rules and structure. It was a bit of a social study in Covid-lockdown-times where we were completely dominated by rules. It was super interesting to observe that new structures emerged by themselves via the interaction. For me again a symbol that something new and positive can arise from deconstruction.

E.B.: And this bat?

Nathalie: It started from a joke. I work with make-up just as much as with hair extension or eye lash extensions. My past extensions are attached to the bat. It is an isolated face, and you only remark the hair that moves. A kind of self-portrait, which literally “plays” with the cliché of blondes. The title of the work is: I have never been a popular girl [laughs].

A fitting attunement to prepare ourselves for the final cover shoot, when we have a lot of fun staging ourselves, very girly-like, in different outfits in different settings.

Looking back, I think again about what it is exactly that defines the poetic in Nathalie Vanheule’s art. One of her central ideas is to reveal the marks of life that often remain hidden beneath the surface. In a figurative sense, then, she provides insights into the darker sides and inner life of the soul. Mostly even of her own. She uses her body as a medium to give form to her emotions, either by using metaphorically selected materials or in interaction with other performers.

Interestingly, works of great sensuality and gentleness rather than aggression and heaviness are created. Why? Nathalie Vanheule demonstrates the power of change, which presupposes the perception of one’s own weaknesses and thus one’s own vulnerability. And that is precisely what is poetic in her art: the beauty of vulnerability …

Further Information

Website: http://www.nathalievanheule.be

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nathalievanheule/