What did you learn (or unlearn) while working on it?
I learned how to make a book: how to select images and order them, how to start a crowdfunding campaign, and how to organise a book presentation. I really liked seeing the printing process on large machines and how layers of ink build up the image. In the late stage of making the book, I had the opportunity to work with a publisher, which helped me a lot with the final process but also with distributing the book.

What was the most difficult thing you faced this month in your creative process?
Because I started studying again after developing my art practice independently for a while, it feels quite confronting to receive critical feedback that makes you think about your work differently. I feel more aware of the creative process and try to trust it with enthusiasm, alternating between insecurity and doubt. Also, combining my own projects and deadlines with a school schedule has been quite challenging this month. Since I am living in the city, it is also challenging for me to find natural spaces that would normally inspire me to take photos. Moving from a more rural area to a bigger city certainly brings challenges in finding the space, both mentally and physically, to take pictures.

What words, ideas or emotions were running through your head?
Trust, hope, connectedness, intuition, let it wash over me. In my phone notes: ritual, dance death sleep, clouds in seasons, capturing cycles, circles, entrance to somewhere sacred.

Was there any conversation, film, music or book that found its way into this work?
Conversations with artists I met after moving to Antwerp definitely influenced my work. I’m also thinking a lot about the book Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, which I recently read, and the theatre play HOPE by NITE, Club Guy & Roni, Thalia Theater Hamburg, and Guy Weizman, a story about staying hopeful in times of despair.

What is your favourite restaurant and what would you recommend us to have there?
I don’t really have a favourite restaurant. I prefer small dinners with friends at my place or theirs. My favourite kind of food would be some kind of mezze. I usually get ingredients from the shop where I’ve been working recently: Het Natuurhuis in Antwerp, a beautiful organic supermarket.

Have you collaborated with any studios, labs or workshops recently, or would you like to in the future?
I had the opportunity to work in the labs of the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht in the Netherlands, a beautiful post-academic institute. They have a wonderful printmaking lab and darkroom where I could make large works with the guidance of two amazing workshop supervisors who also make beautiful work themselves. At the moment, I would like to work more in the workshops at my current school and collaborate with other artists and disciplines.

Recommend us one or several artists you follow, who inspire you, and tell us what you like most about their work or their way of working.
Antonia Petrini, Siân Davey, and Lara Gasparotto are three photographers who make beautiful emotional images and books. I love their way of working with imperfections and colour. Their work feels very intimate, and that’s what I search for in my own work as well.

Floor Martens

Dutch artist. She mainly uses photographic images, printed in analogue techniques, but also uses other media such as written text, audio, installation, book form and sculpture.

www.instagram.com/floormartenss

La entrada The quiet architecture of looking se publicó primero en ERRR MAGAZINE.