I give the door a nod

(c) Els van Houtert
I give the door a nod
Drawings (Different paper, ballpoints, watercolor pencils, lead pencils)

Els van Houtert is an artist and researcher with an academic background in anthropology and religious studies, whose projects revolve around ritual practice, bodily experiences, and material encounters as they are embedded in, and part of our everyday lives.

In her work, Els looks at the everyday meaningful relationships between both herself or other humans, and other, non-human, beings (such as a river, a dragon, fire, the weather or a bedsheet). Looking at these relationships with other `things’, Els adopts a microscopic focus on sensory experiences and tries to bring to light the familiar and the unfamiliar in these experiences. Despite using her own body as a principal resource of artistic exploration, Els also explores the experiences of other people through interviews and conversations.

Process-driven, Els’ work is often expressed as a form of ritualization and installation, and is deliberately incomplete, experience based, and residual. Els works with a mix of mediums, including performance, drawing, writing, ceramics, film and conversation.

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