Four years after the first exhibit of work by Hanneke Giezen in Galerie Terra Delft, there will be another solo exhibition. The title she has chosen is not a reference to the gallery’s name; rather, it shows her commitment to the environment: climate and the manner in which humans treat the earth.
The central question is this: can flora and fauna cope with the speed at which climate change is affecting the earth? She gives her imagination free rein and fantasizes. Will there be spontaneous mutations, will fish sprout feathers, will polar bears become sea bears? Vulnerable species will become extinct, but others will profit from the changes. Perhaps entirely new species will emerge.
Hanneke searches for unknown animals and wants to portray them before they are erased from memory. She does this in her own characteristic way, in colorful porcelain and with a plethora of glossily-glazed baroque decorations.
One example is an exceptional animal: the kakapo, also called the owl parrot, a heavy, herbiferous, flightless parrot native to New Zealand which plays an important role in Maori mythology. This green bird is nearly extinct, much like the dodo, due to the influence of Western explorers whose journeys introduced cats and rats which contributed to the decimation of the natural habitat. The artist depicts the kakapo in all its vulnerability and strength.
Hanneke: “Terra Incognita is the unknown world, where not everything has been discovered, as well as the future world, where so much is yet to be discovered.”
Etty Walda Galerie Terra Delft
