Kunst kan een verzoening met de werkelijkheid zijn. Kan. — Armando, 1982
Weet dat kunst geen antwoorden biedt, maar wel schoonheid, troost en (h)erkenning en hieraan zijn bestaansredenen ontleent.
— Vocivivaci www 2012
Helmi Heerkens
Very curious I entered the introductory course of the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague. And I stayed: what a great year, what a joy, what a space in myself. That making art could produce all that! Since then I was addicted to the sense of space, openness and freedom in my head and in my thinking.
During school, a second addiction was added: by reflecting on and analyzing my working process, I discovered moments in which everything in myself seemed to match. The moments in which desires, feelings, thoughts and actions all are in harmony. The moments when there is no separation between body, mind and soul: a fantastic experience.
Life and art are one, it cannot be different for me. One life in which I am searching, as daughter, woman, mother, partner, friend, immigrant and artist. Searching for? Happiness, satisfaction, fun, truth, consolation, beauty, meaning, clarity, wonder, connection ? My goal, as far as I am aware of it, is constantly changing, searching can be a goal in itself.
Daily life consists mainly of usual, everyday physical acts. Consciously or unconsciously, executing physical acts often has a mental goal, too: distancing yourself, thinking and acquiring understanding. In an act one can connect body, mind and soul. Acts do what art can do, too: reveal the invisible, provide insight and incite emotions. To me, acts form the linkage between inner and outer realms.
I see the body as border between inside and outside, as a miraculous, expressive machine of metamorphosis, which feels, thinks, wishes and acts. The body through which I by acting get in contact with myself and others. The body as carrier of meanings and as means to search, to objectify, to zoom in, to uncover, to get to the essence and to communicate.
I need my inside to be able to be outside. Outside is other people, public space, the filled, hectic world. Often too fast, too much for me. Through the arts, I can choose to be observer or participant in the public space, which is sometimes horrible, but also a necessity. On my own, I don′t get there; I need others to be there, to be an artist, to be Helmi.
In art, I legitimize my craziness, I choose position and I can link or even lift contradictions. In art I create and find symbols and rituals to find my way through life/in the world. Art gives meaning to my life. Art consoles.