painting
The paintings by Dorothée Meddens are reflections of a changing reality, in which time and space play an important role. She is inspired by photography. But a picture is the reflection of only one instant. By superimposing one image on another she investigates and encounters dilemmas - while seeking solutions she creates a new image, which can lead to new associations.
In her early paintings the images were often rasterized, decomposed and magnified (Bull, Pike Perch, Butterflies). The painting or film is finished when a field of tension has been established between the images which seem familiar in such a way, that at the same time this déjà vu can be questioned. She calls it an involuntary memory.
Recurring themes in the work of Dorothée Meddens are water and reflections.The waters, undefined masses, not only represent the infinity of possibilities - all the actual, all the informal, the germ of all germs, all promises of development, but also the threat of complete disappearance.
Looking at the painting Filles sur l'herbe, filles sous l'eau, the viewer might feel like a peeping Tom. Four girls are lying on their bellies underneath the water, seen from behind. At the same time though, these four girls, carefully watching something from behind the grass, appear to be voyeurs too. The girls come to life as water nymphs in her video installation Under the dream. Here they show us an image of seduction and primal instinct. They are responsible for ambivalent emotions of fear and attraction. They connect to the element of water in the human self and to the subconscious. They confuse the viewer's mind as they show themselves, pulling us down to unknown depths.
La Fille du Phare shows us a tall woman in a striped bathing suit. Turning the painting counterclockwise, it reveals an old pier with a lighthouse. The stripes of the bathing suit have gone up to merge with the pillars of the pier, which also might be the ribs of her skeleton. Half of her body might be lying underneath the water, so what you see is a reflection of the other half, which makes her body complete.
The pools and ponds in her newest paintings reflect a dark Asian night, or a hot summer's day that awakens the desire for a dive. Sometimes they make room for shiny and reflecting floors of airports, where the passenger in transit finds himself detached from the world, and from time. Then again, the environment at the place of destination takes over the image: a greenhouse in a pasture under a bright blue sky, a Russian village at night, a business park surrounded by city lights (Encapsulated), a landscape in the north of Norway at Midsummer's night (Out of time).
