Elizabeth Mertens
Date of birth
1961
Place of birth
Biography
Born in Dunedin New Zealand
Studied at the Dunedin School of Art graduating in 1981.
Diploma in Teaching (Art and Art History ) Auckland College of Education
Background includes art education both within school and community environments, freelance design work and independent film-making projects
E M Mertens’ work is linked closely with nature and how we interact with nature.
Mertens' formal art training was in sculpture not ceramics and this allows her the privilege of not knowing what the correct procedures or rules are when working with clay. This often leads to failures but it also throws up the best and most exciting of discoveries. Many hours are spent experimenting with different clays, making slips and adding unusual ingredients in order to achieve the results she wants.
Nature is suspended by Mertens using clay to capture life and preserve it without losing any of the forms beauty and delicacy. It’s the same sort of reasoning ascribed to painters who capture life in a beautiful way – to make sure it lives forever. The perfect imperfections of nature – it is the textures, shapes, lines, contrasts, colours, fragility and decomposition that inform and intrigue. Mertens has a lifelong fascination and love for museums the way we attempt to contain, document record and display everything for perpetuity regardless of the damage done in the process.
People’s need to control and define nature fascinates Mertens, and her work is often a statement about our relationship with the nature world and our obsessive interaction and disruption of this world. This obsession can be seen both in formal controlled environments such as museums but also in our daily lives.
Mertens is presently working on a variety of projects based around these ideas.
Her work can be found in both public and private collections.
Retrieved from emmertens.com
Studied at the Dunedin School of Art graduating in 1981.
Diploma in Teaching (Art and Art History ) Auckland College of Education
Background includes art education both within school and community environments, freelance design work and independent film-making projects
E M Mertens’ work is linked closely with nature and how we interact with nature.
Mertens' formal art training was in sculpture not ceramics and this allows her the privilege of not knowing what the correct procedures or rules are when working with clay. This often leads to failures but it also throws up the best and most exciting of discoveries. Many hours are spent experimenting with different clays, making slips and adding unusual ingredients in order to achieve the results she wants.
Nature is suspended by Mertens using clay to capture life and preserve it without losing any of the forms beauty and delicacy. It’s the same sort of reasoning ascribed to painters who capture life in a beautiful way – to make sure it lives forever. The perfect imperfections of nature – it is the textures, shapes, lines, contrasts, colours, fragility and decomposition that inform and intrigue. Mertens has a lifelong fascination and love for museums the way we attempt to contain, document record and display everything for perpetuity regardless of the damage done in the process.
People’s need to control and define nature fascinates Mertens, and her work is often a statement about our relationship with the nature world and our obsessive interaction and disruption of this world. This obsession can be seen both in formal controlled environments such as museums but also in our daily lives.
Mertens is presently working on a variety of projects based around these ideas.
Her work can be found in both public and private collections.
Retrieved from emmertens.com
