Florien Hazenberg

FLORIEN WAS HERE

Series of works centred around the theme of mementos, both souvenirs and “automarqueurs”. Whereas a souvenir is an object with a link to a place that you take with you, automarqueur is a word I invented for objects that have a link to you, that you leave behind to make a personal mark. Examples are lovelocks that couples leave at a romantic spot as a symbol of their relationship and candles and drawings that people leave after a disaster to mourn together. As an international student, I am fascinated by cultural cross-pollination and I chose mementos as the theme for my degree show, because I am interested in how places, people, events and objects get connected, even intertwined.

I often use found materials in my work as a starting point. I not only want to reduce the amount of new material that needs to be produced for me to be able to make art, but I also love these materials with a history. Objects lost and found, with energy stored within them from previous experiences and encounters. In this exhibition, I used stones and fossils found on the Kent coastline and the French Opal Coast, on the other side of the channel. These natural objects have a history going back millions of years, long before homo sapiens came into existence. I then built upon these found items by combining different materials and techniques such as crochet, weaving and ceramic.

All my degree show works are included in the group show “Sorry mum I went to art school”, curated together with the rest of the Tapped In team, a collective of artists/curators and based off of our shared themes of domesticity, the uncanny and the urge to collect.