Annette Hendrikx

Annette Hendrikx  is fascinated by connections we make as human beings, with ourselves, with each other and with our environment. The common thread is language as a means of expression and communication. Language of the word, of the body and of the image. She poses research questions. What does connection mean? What is the role of language? How does it work and why, often it doesn’t? Using (existing) objects, words and the body, she unravels the questions.

As a child, she experienced the expressive possibilities of dance language, a basis of her attention to body language. As an adolescent, she discovered the power of word language. As an adult, she discovered the possibilities of visual language through art education. The connection between these three language forms is given scientific depth thanks to an academic education. Her sources of inspiration include the psychoanalyst Lacan and the language philosophers Wittgenstein, de Saussure, Gadamer and Derrida.

Scientifically and artistically, AH investigates the meaning of connections, their complexity, presence or even absence in often everyday situations. Currently, her focus is on seeking and creating new possibilities where existing language as a ‘system’ falls short. Does the meaning of word language reside in ‘solidified’ elements like letters, words, sentences? Can these elements perhaps be liquefied?  Under the title “What do you say?”, AH shows in this exhibition three works from her research into the audible but non-verbal elements in spoken language (monologue, dialogue, multilogue). She visualises them in her own writing, questions their meaning and allows the viewer to pause for a moment to consider what the non-verbal aspects of conversations do for connection.