Jackie Mulder, NL

Jackie Mulder is fascinated by the way our brains work when we let our thoughts wander. In doing so, she realizes all too well that no one grows up without traumas.

Often they start in our childhood and before you know it they affect your later life. Jackie is well aware of this and sees her artistic process as a way to not displace the past but to leave it behind. Mulder: ‘In a contemplative process that arises from repetitive handicrafts, I create my own world, calm my mind and repair what has been damaged.’

With her project ‘Thought Trails’, consisting of repeating patterns of photos stitched together and sewn together, Mulder shows how our brains work when we let them switch randomly between past and present, from razor-sharp to blurry. Images, in the form of photographs, connect them with the irregularity of a (usually) common thread to create a new reality out of old pains. Mulder: ‘I use the irregularity of the wire to draw with it like a pencil meandering over the image. I let the thread connect and separate as an abstraction for a life of memories, searching and thinking.’

In addition to photography and thread, Mulder uses techniques and materials such as charcoal, stitching, beeswax, ink, paint and transparent – usually fully hand-embroidered – silk. Elements such as tactility and layering characterize Mulder’s work, which often consists of a gap between the front and the back layer of paper, so that the viewer has to navigate between razor-sharp and blurred images. Just as our brains have to constantly switch between reality and past and between experience and memory. Mulder likes to work in large format and makes installations that add depth and layers to her images. She prefers to let the audience walk through her photos and installations as if they were wandering in a forest of memories where every step leads to wonder and – perhaps – recognition.