Inside the whale
by Marike Hoex
In a child’s magical world nothing yet is determined. Everything is still wide open, carefree, hopeful, in motion, enchanting. Wonder and ignorance meet there where the shadow side of our existence remains latent. This openness makes us receptive, fragile and defenseless.
While we may be suspicious of darkness, we cannot grasp it, and that which we suppress finds its place in the shadows. Marike Hoex observes; she looks, keeps on looking, and lets her inner world determine what she captures. As a child she regularly had nightmares about being inside a whale. What she perceived became a world of imagination.
The whale is a mythical creature and knows of depths we are not aware of. She is huge, unfathomable, a monster. Being inside feels both oppressive and enveloping. ‘Inside the whale’ speaks of fate, ambivalence and the unsaid. The work immerses us in a world we, as adults, cannot imagine.
The images are magical and charged as is the world of a child. Embrace, love, tenderness and longing stand beside loneliness, anguish, uncertainty and pain. This exhibition is about the irrevocable ambiguity of our existence, about innocence and experience. ‘Inside the whale’ offers you the space to be in awe while you imagine that which is not shown.
